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USURY 



A Scriptural, Ethical and 
Economic View 



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BY 



CALVIN ELLIOTT 



J 3 > J , 



PUBLISHED BY 

TBB ANTI-USURY I^EAGUE 

MII,I,KRSBURG, OHIO 



THE LroPARY'OFl 
One Ccpv Rfc-cEivi:o I 



C^L. / ' /^ or.] 

^ h "] I 
COPY 3. 



HBS3' 



COPYRIGHTED 1902 

BY 

CALVIN ELLIOTT. 



CONTENTS. 

Page. 

—Definition Y 

[ — The Law by Moses 11 

II — Usury and 'The Stranger" 18 

V — David and Solomon 26 

'^ — Denunciation of Jeremiah and Eze- 

kiel 30 

I — Financial Reform by Nehemiah. . . 36 

'II — Teachings of the Master 42 

III — Parables of the Talents and the 

Pounds 62 

X — Practice of the disciples 58 

C — Church history 69 

•CI — Calvin's letter on usury Y3 

?CII — Permanency of the prohibition . . . T9 

Kill — Our changed conditions 81 

XIV — The American Revision 87 

XV — Duty learned from two sources. . . 93 

XVI — Rights of man over things 97 

XVII — Equal rights of men 102 

XVIII — A false basal principle 108 

XIX — The true ethical principle. ..... .115 

XX— Wealth is barren 121 



CONTENTS— Continued. 

Page. 

Chapter XXI— Wealth decays 132 

Chapter XXII— The, debt habit . 138 

Chapter XXIII — The borrower is servant to the 

lender 144 

Chapter XXIV — Usury enslaves the borrower. .146 

Chapter XXV — Usury oppresses the poor 154 

Chapter XXVI — Usury oppresses the poor — 

continued 160 

Chapter XXVII — Usury oppresses the poor — 

continued 168 

Chapter XXVIII — Usury oppresses the poor — 

concluded 174 

Chapter XXIX — Usury centralizes wealth 180 

Chapter XXX — Mammon dominates the nations. 189 

Chapter XXXI— Effect on character 206 

Chapter XXXII— Ax at the root of the tree 219 

Chapter XXXIII — Per contra; Christian Apolo- 
gists 233 

Chapter XXXIV— Per contra; Land Rentals. . .243 
Chapter XXXV — Per contra; Political Econo- 
mists 253 

Chapter XXXVI— Usury in History 258 

Chapter XXXVII— Francis Bacon .266 

Chapter XXXVIII— Why this truth was neg- 
lected 272 

Chapter XXXIX — Crushed truth will rise again.281 
Index ...................293 



TO MY READERS. 

le sincere and thoughtful consideration of 
)y all its readers. Please follow the argu- 
e order in which it is presented. This is 
developed in my own mind and led me, 
ip, irresistibly to its conclusions. Do not 
dosing chapters first, but begin with the 
I." I believe every candid reader doing 
aving a logical mind, will fully and heartily 
he condemnation of usury. 

:hese arguments will be fairly treated and 
hed even by those whose interests seem in 
[ have simply sought the truth, believing 
:ruth shall make you free." It cannot be 
r any truth is in real conflict with the high- 

of any man. 

ncere friends of this truth are grieved that 
snt is so crudely and roughly stated, I can 

excuse^ that, so far as I know or can learn 
reat librarians I have consulted, this is the 
)t ever made to fully present the anti-usury 
and I sincerely hope that others, profiting 
rt, may be able to make it more effective. 

The Author. 



CHAPTER I. 
DEFINITION. 

solution of the English language, since the 
our King James version of the Bible, many 
have been introduced, and many old ones 
^ed their meanings. 

early three hundred years the Saxon word 
nder, has become obsolete. It was in com- 
nd well understood when the version was 
is now misleading. Thus we have in Isaiah 

I will work and who will let (hinder) it?" 
red that he purposed to go to Rome, ''but 
ndered) hitherto." Rom. 1 : 13. Again 

II Thess. 2:7: "Only he who now letteth 
) will let (hinder), until he be taken out of 

o know, has become obsolete. Gen. 21 : 26 : 
low) not who hath done this thing." Ex. 
s for this Moses, we wot (know) not what 
ae of him." Acts 3 : 17 : "I wot (know) 
^h ignorance ye did it." 
t," from its derivation and use, meant, "to 
" now it means to hinder. Ps. 59 : 10 : 
of my mercies shall prevent (go before) 
92 : 2 : "Let us prevent (go before) his 
hanksgiving." I Thess. 4: 15: "We who 

(7) 



8 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

are alive shall not prevent (go before) them who are 
asleep." 

Charity, which now means liberality to the poor, 
and a disposition to judge others kindly and favorably, 
was at that time a synonym of love, and used inter- 
changeably with love in the translations of the Greek. 
This is especially noted in the panegyric of love, in the 
thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and faithfully 
corrected in the Revised Version, though some have 
felt that the beauty and especially the euphony of the 
familiar passage has been marred. But the word 
charity is no longer equivalent to love, in our lan- 
guage, and could not be retained without perverting 
the sense. 

Usury, when the version was made, meant any 
premium for a loan of money, or increase taken for a 
loan of any kind of property. 

Theological Dictionary: ''Usury, the gain taken 
for a loan of money or wares." "The gain of any- 
thing above the principal, or that which was lent, 
exacted only in consideration of the loan, whether it 
be in money, corn, wares or the like." 

Bible Encyclopedia: ''Usury, a premium received 
for a sum of money over and above the principal." 

Schaff-Herzog : "Usury, originally, any increase 
on any loan." 

This was the usage of the word usury by the great 
masters of the English language, like Shakespeare 
and Bacon, in their day, and is still given as the first 
definition by the lexicographers of the present. 



Definition. 9 

Webster, 1890 edition: ''Usury, 1. A premium 
or increase paid or stipulated to be paid for a loan, as 
for money; interest. 2. The practice of taking 
interest. 3. Law. Interest in excess of a legal rate 
charged to a borrower for the use of money." 

Interest is comparatively a new word in the lan- 
guage meaning also a premium, for a loan of money. 
It first appeared in the fourteenth century, as a 
substitute for usury, in the first law ever enacted by a 
Christian nation that permitted the taking of a 
premium for any loan. The word usury was very 
odious to the Christian mind and conscience. 

Interest was at the first a legal term, used in law 
only, and it has always been applied to that premium 
or measure of increase that is permitted or made legal 
by civil law. 

In modern usage usury is limited in its meaning to 
that measure of increase prohibited by the civil law. 
Thus the two words interest and usury now express 
what was formerly expressed by the one word usury 
alone. Interest covers that measure of increase that 
is authorized in different countries, while usury, with 
all the odium that has been attached to it for ages, is 
limited to that measure of increase that for public 
welfare is forbidden by the laws of a state. 

The distinction is wholly civic and legal. That 
may be usury in one state which is only interest in 
another. The legal rates greatly vary and are changed 
from time to time in the states themselves. If a state 



10 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usur 



should forbid the taking of any increase on loans, t] 
all increase would be usury, and there could be 
^interest ; or if a state should repeal all laws limiting 
exactions of increase, then there would be no us 
in that state. Usury is increase forbidden by ( 
law. Separated from the enacted statutes of a s 
the distinction disappears. There is no moral nc 
there an economic difference. 

Blackstone says : ''When money is lent on a ( 
tract to receive not only the principal sum agatii, 
also an increase by way of compensation for the 
the increase is called interest by those who thin 
lawful, and usury by those who do not." 

The moral nature of an act does not depend on 
enacted statutes of human legislators, and the la^^ 
economics are eternal. We must not permit 
views of divine and economic truth to be perve 
by this modern division of increase into legal 
illegal. In order that the whole truth may be 
expressed in our language we must combine with 
old word usury the new word interest ; then only 
we have the full force of the revealed truth. "Wt 
fore then gavest not thou my money into the b 
that at my coming I might have required mine 
with usury or interest?" It is rendered interest ir 
Revised Version. 

Throughout this discussion usury is used in it; 
hid classical meaning for any increase of a loan, ^ 
or small^ whether authorized or forbidden by the 
state. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE LAW BY MOSES. 

God determined to deliver his enslaved people from 
the bondage in Egypt, and to lead them out to the 
land he had promised to their fathers. They had been 
strangers in Egypt ; now they should have a land of 
their own. To them liberty was but a tradition ; they 
should now be freemen. They had been a tribe; they 
should now be a nation. 

God raised up Moses to be his special servant and 
the mouthpiece to declare his will. He ordered his 
marvelous deliverance from the river, and his training 
in court as a freeman. He then gave him direction 
to lead his people out of their slavery, and also divine 
authority to announce to his people the code of laws 
by which they were to be governed in their free state. 
Some of these laws were ceremonial, to conserve their 
religion, that they might not forget their God. Some 
were civil and politic, to promote the moral, intel- 
lectual and material welfare. All were in accord with 
the moral and religious nature of man, and with sound 
economic principles. All were suited to promote theii 
highest goodj and to secure them forever in their 
freedom and national independence. 

The great basal principles of law are found in con- 
crete form. 

(11) 



12 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of C7; 

Human life is sacred as we find from the ( 
laws for its protection. The owner of an c 
made responsible for the life taken by ''an ox tl 
known to push with its horns." 

A battlement or balustrade was required 
houses, very Hke our laws requiring fire escapes 
principle is the same. 

The laws forbidding marriage within cert? 
grees of kinship have been copied into the 1 
every civilized people. The laws for the presei 
of social purity have never been surpassed. 

The rights of property were sacred. Each 
right to his own. Theft was severely punishe 
a thief be found breaking up, and be smitten t 
die, there shall no blood be shed for him." 

Each must assist in the protection of the pr 
of others; even the enemy's property must b 
tected. 'Tf thou meet thine enemy's ox or '. 
going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back 
again." 

The laws for the relief of the poor were kind 
more encouraging to self-help and self-relianc 
our modern poorhouses. Deut. 15 : 7-11 : 'T 
be among you a poor man of one of thy br 
within any of thy gates in thy land which th^ 
thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden 
heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor broth( 
thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, an( 
surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that wl: 



The Law by Moses. 13 

wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy 
wicked heart, saying. The seventh year, the year of 
release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy 
poor brother, and thou givest him naught, and he cry 
unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. 
Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not 
be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that 
for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all 
thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand 
unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land ; 
therefore T command thee, saying, Thou shalt open 
thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to 
thy needy, in thy land." 

These divinely given laws never wrought injustice. 
They protected life, purity and property, and required 
mutual helpfulness. They were given by the divine 
mind, in infinite love, to promote the highest good of 
this chosen people. 

These laws of God, given by Moses, positively for- 
bade usury or interest, and this prohibition was so 
repeated that there was no mistaking the meaning. 
Ex. 22 : 25 : 'Tf thou lend money to any of my people 
that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as a 
usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury." 

This law is more fully presented in Lev. 25 : 35, 36, 
3Y : "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen 
into decay with thee, then thou shalt relieve him ; yea, 
though he be a stranger, or a sojourner; that he may 
jive with thee. Take thou no usury of him, or 



14 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may Hve 
with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon 
usury, or lend fiim thy victuals for increase." 

Prof. George Bush makes the following note upon 
this passage: "The original term 'Neshek' comes 
from the verb 'Nashak' (to bite), mostly applied to 
the bite of a serpent; and probably signifies biting 
usury, so called perhaps because it resembled the bite 
of a serpent; for as this is often so small as to be 
scarcely perceptible at first, yet the venom soon 
spreads and diffuses itself till it reaches the vitals, so 
the increase of usury, which at first is not perceived, 
at length grows so much as to devour a man's sub- 
stance." 

An effort is sometimes made to limit the application 
of these laws by placing special emphasis on the pov- 
erty of the borrowers and to confine the prohibition of 
usury to loans to the poor to meet the necessaries of 
life ; and it is claimed that the laws are not intended 
to prohibit usury on a loan which the borrower 
secures as capital for a business. 

In reply it can be said : 

1. There may be more benevolence in a loan 
to enable a brother to go into business than in 
a loan to supply his present needs. It may be less 
benevolent and less kind to lend a dollar to buy 
flour for present use than to lend a dollar to buy a hoe 
with which to go into business and earn the flour. 



The Law by Moses. 15 

The highest philanthropy supplies the means and 
opportunities for self-help. 

2. A desire for capital to promote a business to 
gain more than is necessary to nourish the physical 
and mental manhood is not justified nor encouraged 
anywhere in the Word. There is just a sufificiency of 
food necessary to the highest physical condition. 
There is just a sufficiency of material wealth necessary 
to the development of the noblest manhood. More 
decreases physical and mental vigor and degrades the 
whole man. To seek more is of the nature of that 
''covetousness which is idolatry." Prov. 23 : 4 : 
'Tabor not to be rich." Prov. 28 : 20 : ''He that 
maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." 

Riches are a gift of God and a reward of righteous- 
ness. 

Prov. 22 : 4 : "The reward of humility and the fear 
of the Lord are riches and honor and Hfe." Psalm 
112 : 1, 3 : "Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, 
that delighteth greatly in his commandments. * * * 
Wealth and riches shall be in his house." 

'Tn the fourth petition of the Lord's prayer (which 
is: Give us this day our daily bread) we pray, That 
of God's free gift, we may receive a competent portion 
of the good things of this life and enjoy his blessing 
with them." 

3. If the prohibition is appHcable only when the 
borrower is poor it would be difficult to properly 
apply it by drawing the line between the rich and the 



16 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Vieiv of Usury. 

poor. Many who are rich feel that they are poor and 
there are many high spirited poor who will not admit 
their poverty. Many rich live in conditions that some 
poor would call poverty. The line must be vague and 
indefinite and always offensive. If any one should 
endeavor to clearly mark and emphasize such a divis- 
ion in any modern community he would receive the 
contempt of all right thinking people. 

4. The laws of the Hebrews did not discriminate 
classes except in their ceremonial and forms of wor- 
ship. There was but one law and that applicable to 
all alike. Even the stranger was included in the 
uniformity of the law. Num. 15: 15, 16: "One 
ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation 
and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, 
* jk * one law and one manner shall be for you 
and for the stranger that sojourneth with you." 

5. In the Hebrew community the man of inde- 
pendent resources did not compromise his freedom 
by becoming indebted to another. Debt was a sure 
indication of some embarrassment or strait. The 
mention of the poverty of the possible debtor is not 
to limit the application of the law but describes the 
borrower. Thou shalt not lend upon usury to the 
poor unfortunate fellow who is compelled to ask a 
loan. 

6. The laws of the Hebrew state were for the pro- 
motion of equity between man and man and also for 



The Law by Moses. 17 

the protection of the weak and the helpless. With 
these objects all good governments must be in 
harmony. They can only be secured by general laws. 
It would be very imperfect protection to the helpless 
poor if it was permitted to charge usury to the covet- 
ous^ greedy fellow who having much, yet desired to 
gain more and was bidding urgently for the very 
loan the unfortunate brother needed. Also even 
equity between the borrower and the lender would 
work a hardness in the conditions of the poor man. 
Full protection requires a law of general application. 

7. Independence, self-reliance, self-support, was 
the condition aimed at and encouraged in the Hebrew 
state. Borrowing was only in time of sore need. 
The man who went a-borrowing was second only to 
the man who went a-begging. The brother who, 
through misfortune became dependent, was able the 
sooner to repay his loan and return to independence 
and to self support. 

8. In the repetition of the law in Deut. 23 : 19, 20, 
there is no reference to the poverty of the borrower 
and it cannot by fair interpretation be limited to the 
poor. *'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy 
brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, usury of 
anything that is lent upon usury. Unto a stranger 
thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy brother 
thou shalt not lend upon usury: that the Lord thy 
God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine hand 
to do in the land whither thou goest to possess it." 



CHAPTER III. 
USURY AND "THE STRANGER." 

Dent. 23 : 19, 20 : "Thou shalt not lend upon usury 
to thy brother; usury of money, usury of victuals, 
usury of anything- that is lent upon usury. Unto a 
stranger thou mayest lend upon usury; but unto thy 
brother thou shalt not lend upon usury : that the Lord 
thy God may bless thee in all that thou settest thine 
hand to in the land whither thou goest to possess it." 

While there is no reference to poverty in this pass- 
age and the prohibition cannot fairly be limited to 
loans to the poor, a shadow of permission to exact 
usury is found in the clause: ''unto a stranger thou 
mayest lend upon usury." 

Hebrews, who have been anxious to obey the letter 
of the Mosaic law, while indifferent to its true spirit, 
have construed this into a permission to exact usury 
of all Gentiles. Christian apologists for usury, who 
have not utterly discarded all laws given by Moses as 
effete and no longer binding, have tried hard to show 
that this clause authorizes the general taking of 
interest. To do this it is wrested from its natural 
connection, and the true historic reference is ignored. 

Three classes of persons, that were called strangers, 

may be noted for the purpose of presenting the true 

import of this passage. 
(18) 



Usury and "The Stranger.'' 19 

1. Those were called strangers who were not of 
Hebrew blood, but were proselytes to the Hebrew 
faith and had cast their lot with them. They were 
mostly poor, for not belonging" to any of the families 
of Jacob, they had no landed inheritance. The glean- 
ings of the field and the stray sheaf were left for the 
fatherless, the poor, and these proselyted strangers. 
But they were to be received in love, and treated in 
all respects as those born of their own blood. Ex. 
12 : 48, 49 : "And when a stranger shall sojourn with 
thee, and will keep the passover to the Lord, let all his 
males be circumcized, and then let him come near and 
keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land : 
for no uncircumcized person shall eat thereof. One 
law shall be to him that is home born, and unto the 
sti anger that sojourneth among you." 

Lev. 24 : 22 : "Ye shall have one manner of law, as 
well for the stranger, as for one of your own country : 
for I am the Lord your God." 

Num. 9 : 14 : "And if a stranger shall sojourn 
among you, and will keep the passover unto the Lord ; 
according to the ordinance of the passover, and 
according to the manner thereof, so shall he do: ye 
shall have one ordinance both for the stranger, and 
for him that was born in the land." 

Num. 15 : 15, 16 : "One ordinance shall be both 
for you of the congregation^ and also for the stranger 
that sojourneth with you, an ordinance forever in your 
congregations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be 



20 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury, 

before the Lord. One law and one manner shall be 
for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with 
you." 

Of these strangers it is explicitly said they are to 
be treated precisely as brethren of their own blood. 

Lev. 25 : 35, 36 : ''And if thy brother be waxen 
poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt 
relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a 
sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou no , 
usury of him^ or increase: but fear thy God; that thy 
brother may live with thee." 

2. There was also another class of strangers, 
including all the nations that were not of Hebrew 
blood, by which they were surrounded. These traded 
with them and often sojourned for a more or less 
extended period among them for merely secular pur- 
poses, but never accepted their faith. For this reason 
they were often called sojourners. With us, in law, 
the former strangers would be known as "naturalized 
citizens," these as "denizens," residents in a foreign 
land for secular purposes. These denizens were to 
be dealt with justly, to be treated kindly and even with 
affection, remembering their long sojourn as strang- 
ers in Egypt. Ex. 22 : 21 : "Thou shalt neither vex 
a stranger^ nor oppress him : for ye were strangers in 
the land of Egypt." 

Ex. 23:9: "Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger : 
for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were 
strangers in the land of Egypt." 



Usury and "The Stranger." 21 

They were "denizens," but not citizens of Egypt 
four hundred years. 

Lev. 19: 33, 34: ''And if a stranger sojourn with 
thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the 
stranger that dwell eth with you shall be unto you as 
one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thy- 
self ; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt : I am 
the Lord your God." 

This class of denizens or sojourners was also to be 
treated with the same kindness as their own blood. 

Lev. 25: 35, 36: ''And if thy brother be waxen 
poor, and fallen in decay with thee, then thou shalt 
relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger, or a 
sojourner; that he may live with thee. Take thou 
no usury of him, or increase : but fear thy God : that 
thy brother may live with thee." 

The sojourner or denizen is here distinguished 
from the stranger who had been naturalized, adopting 
their faith. 

3. There was another class called strangers. This 
class was limited to the inhabitants of their promised 
land. 

Robinson's Bible Encyclopedia says, on this clause : 
" 'Unto a stranger thou mayest lend upon usury.' In 
this place God seems to tolerate usury toward 
strangers: that is the Canaanites and other people 
devoted to subjection, but not toward such strangers 
against whom the Hebrews had no quarrel. To exact 
usury is here, according to Ambrose, an act of 



22 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

hostility. It was a kind of waging war with the 
Canaanites and ruining them by means of usury." 

God withheld his chosen people from taking pos- 
session of the promised land until ''their iniquity was 
full" and the divine sentence of condemnation had 
been pronounced against them. They were to be 
rooted out of the land and utterly destroyed for their 
sins, and their land given to the chosen people. God 
declared that he would execute his sentence, driving 
them out before them, as his people should increase 
and be able to occupy the land. Ex. 23 : 23, 28-32 : 
"For mine angel shall go before thee, and bring thee 
in unto the Amorites^ and the Jebusite, and I will cut 
them ofif. And I will send hornets before thee, which 
shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanite, and the 
Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out 
from before thee in one year; lest the land become 
desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against 
thee. By little and little I will drive them out from 
before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the 
land. And I will set my bounds from the Red Sea 
even unto the sea of the Philistines, and from the 
desert unto the river : for I will deliver the inhabitants 
of the land into your hand ; and thou shalt drive them 
out before thee. Thou shalt make no covenant with 
them, nor with their gods." 

Ex. 34 : 10-12 : "And he said. Behold, I make a 
covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, 
such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any 



Usury and "The Stranger." 23 

nation : and all the people among which thou art shall 
see the work of the Lord : for it is a terrible thing that 
I will do with thee. Observe thou that which I 
command thee this day: behold, I drive out before 
thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, 
and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. 
Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with 
the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it 
be for a snare in the midst of thee." 

They were in no way to covenant with this people 
and interfere with the execution of divine judgment. 
They were commanded, willing or unwilling, to be in 
a measure the executioners of those under sentence. 
These people of Canaan were deprived of all rights 
by the divine sentence and the Israelites were not to 
grant any. To do so was direct disobedience, and yet 
most of the tribes failed to obey the command, permit- 
ting many of the inhabitants to remain. 

When the Gibeonites deceived Joshua and secured 
a pledge, the pledge of their lives was kept, but they 
were made slaves, doomed to drudgery forever, "hew- 
ers of wood and drawers of water." Josh. 9 : 23. 

This compromise was contrary to the divine 
command for their utter destruction. To condone 
the guilt of these people, or to interfere with their 
execution, was as flagrant a violation of law as that 
of a modern community that seeks to protect crimi- 
nals, or that interferes with the execution of those 
convicted of capital crimes. 



24 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

This class of strangers had no rights that Hebrews 
were permitted to respect. They were not to be \ 
given any privileges. They were to be treated as 
Hindoo widows are treated, ''accursed of the gods 
and hated of men." Debts were not to be forgiven 
them. The year of Jubilee did not afifect them. They 
remained enslaved forever. The Sabbath's rest was 
only incidental, that there might be a complete cessa- 
tion of all activities. 

In the fourth commandment Deut. 5 : 14, "thy 
stranger" is mentioned after the ox, ass, and cattle, 
and was given rest for the same reason the beasts are 
permitted to rest : "That thy man-servant and maid- 
servant may rest as well as thou." They had not the 
rights of a common servant or slave. The carcass of 
the animal that died of itself could be given them to 
eat, and they could be charged usury. 

Yet this clause has been seized upon by avari- 
cious Jews as permission to exact usury of all the 
nations not of Hebrew blood, ignoring the fact that 
when given it was limited to those peoples under the 
curse of God for their iniquities. It can not justly be 
made to mean that the Hebrews have a right to treat 
other nations with less righteousness than they treat 
their own people. 

It is an unwarranted broadening to make it a per- 
mission to exact usury from all the human race except 
kom Hebrews. 

It was chiefly the acting upon this false interpreta- 



Usury and "The Stranger." 25 

tion, classing- all Gentiles with these strangers, 
accursed of God, that had no rights they were permit- 
ted to respect, that set every Gentile Christian's hand 
against the Jews for fifteen hundred years. 

Nothing more clearly marked the line between 
Christian and Hebrew during fifteen centuries than 
this one thing, that the Hebrews exacted usury or 
interest of the Gentiles while the Christians were 
unanimous in its denunciation, and forbade its 
practice. 

Gentile Christian apologists for the taking of usury 
or interest, to overcome the force of this prohibition, 
are compelled to grant that Christians may be less 
brotherly than Hebrews : that the borrowers whether 
Christian or not are ''strangers" to those who make 
them loans upon increase. 



CHAPTER IV. 
DAVID AND SOLOMON. 

Devout Hebrews during- the period of the Judges 
obeyed the Mosaic prohibition of usury or interest. 
It was also recognized as binding and obeyed during 
the reigns of David and Solomon. This was a greatly 
prosperous period when commerce flourished and 
trade was extended to the ends of the earth. 

David was weak before certain temptations and his 
falls were grievous, but his repentance was deep and 
his returns to God were sincere. He never failed to 
regard God as supreme over him and the bestower of 
all his blessings. He is called the man after God's 
own heart, and it is also said that his heart was perfect 
before God. His spirit of devout worship has never 
been surpassed. His Psalms, in all the ages, have 
been accepted as expressing the true yearning after 
righteousness and a longing for closer communion 
with God. 

David, in the fifteenth Psalm, expresses the thought 
of the earnest and reverent worshippers of his time. 
This Psalm declares the necessity of moral purity in 
those who would be citizens of Zion and dwellers in 
the holy hill. 

"Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? 
(26) 



David and Solomon. 27 

Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh 
uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh 
the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with 
his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh 
up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a 
vile person is condemned ; but he honoreth them that 
fear th^ Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt and 
changeth not. He that putteth not out his money 
to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He 
that doeth these things shall never be moved." 

The description, "He that putteth not out his 
money to usury," is direct and unqualified. There 
could be no mistaking its meaning. Those who were 
guilty could not claim to be citizens of Zion. There 
is no qualifying clause behind which the usurer could 
take refuge and escape condemnation. 

This Psalm, prepared by the king, was chanted in 
the great congregation, and was a prick to the con- 
sciences of the sinners and a public reproof of all the 
sins mentioned. He that putteth out his money to 
increase received thus a public reproof in the great 
worshipping assembly. 

Solomon, endowed with unequaled wisdom and 
able so clearly to discern the right, places among his 
proverbs a direct denunciation of this sin. 

Prov. 28 : 8 : "He that by usury and unjust gain 
increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him 
that will pity the poor." 



28 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

In this proverb the gain of usury is classed with 
unjust gain that shall not bless the gatherer. This is 
in entire harmony with other proverbs in which those 
who practice injustice and oppression are declared to 
be wanting in true wisdom and receive no benefit 
themselves. 

"The righteousness of the upright shall deliver 
them: but transgressors shall be taken in their own 
naughtiness." 

"As righteousness tendeth to life; so he that pur- 
sueth evil pursueth it to his own death." 

"Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an 
evil way^ he shall fall himself into his own pit ; but the 
upright shall have good things in possession." 

"Rob not the poor, because he is poor: neither 
oppress the afHicted in the gate: for the Lord will 
plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that 
spoiled them." 

Usury and unjust gain are joined by Solomon as 
sins of the same nature. It is also implied that they 
are necessarily connected with want of sympathy and 
helpfulness toward the poor. They are presented as 
an oppression that shall not bless the oppressor. 

This proverb does not confine the evil to the bor- 
rower Hke the proverb, "The borrower is servant to 
the lender." The wrong is not confined to those of 
the poor to whom loans may be made. The oppres- 
sion of usury is upon all the poor though they are not 
borrowers. They are the ultimate sufferers though 



David and Solomon. 29 

the loan may be made by one rich man to another to 
enable him to engage in some business for profit. 
Usury is so bound up with injustice that its practice 
cannot fail to result in increasing the hard conditions 
of all the poor. 

Solomon's reign was brilliant, and the ships of his 
commerce entered every port in the known world, 
yet usury was not necessary and was not practiced in 
that prosperous age. 



CHAPTER V. 
DENUNCIATION OF JEREMIAH AND EZEKIEL. 

The Hebrew nation reached its summit of power 
and glory during the reign of King Solomon, but 
corruption crept in and disintegration followed, and a 
series of conflicts between portions of the kingdom. 
The laws given by Moses were neglected, and a long 
period of gross sinning followed. They were warned 
by the faithful yet hopeful prophet Isaiah that the 
overthrow of their nation was certain, and that their 
people would be carried captive to a strange land 
unless they forsook utterly their sins and turned to 
righteousness. They did not heed and the predicted 
calamities came upon them. 

In the midst of these calamities the contemporary 
prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel ministered. They 
differed greatly in their dispositions. 

Jeremiah was a complainer. Always bemoaning 
his own and his people's hard lot. The Lamentations 
are recognized as the best extant expression of unmi- 
tigated grief. He lamented his birth because he was 
treated as a usurer and oppressor^ when he had never 
exacted usury, nor had business with usurers. Jer. 
15: 10: "Woe, is me, my brother, that thou hast 
borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to 
the whole earth. I have neither lent on usury, nor 
(30) 



Denunciation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 31 

have men lent to me on usury ; yet every one of them 
doth curse me." 

Ezekiel was always patient, faithfully proclaiming 
his messages, and suffering in silence. The com- 
pleteness of his self-control and patient suffering is 
shown in the short but pathetic description of the 
death of his beloved wife, yet at the divine command 
he repressed his grief and delivered his message the 
following morning. Ezekiel 24 : 15-18 : "Also the 
word of the Lord came unto me^ saying, Son of man, 
behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes 
with a stroke ; yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, 
neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, 
make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thy 
head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, 
and cover up thy lips, and eat not the bread of men. 
So I spake of people in the morning; and at even my 
wife died; and I did in the morning as I was com- 
manded." 

These prophets were familiar with the same scenes. 
They met the same sins. Some have thought they 
exchanged messages, sending them respectively to 
Jerusalem and Chaldea for encouragement and con- 
firmation. This was the opinion of Jerome. 

In a catalogue of the sins prevailing in Jerusalem, 
for which the judgment of God came upon them, this 
prophet places "Usury and increase." Ezekiel 22: 
7-12: 'Tn thee have they set light by father and 
mother: in the midst of thee have they dealt by 
oppression with the stranger : in thee have they vexed 



32 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast despised 
mine holy things, and hast profaned my Sabbaths. 
In thee are men that carry tales to shed blood: and 
in thee they eat upon the mountains : in the midst of 
thee they commit lewdness. In thee have they dis- 
covered their father's nakedness: in thee have they 
humbled her that was set apart for pollution. And 
one hath committed abomination with his neighbor's 
wife ; and another hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in- 
law ; and another in thee hath humbled his sister, his 
father's daughter. In thee have they taken gifts to 
shed blood ; thou hast taken usury and increase, and 
thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extor- 
tion, and hast forgotten me, saith the Lord God." 

It would not be easy to give a list of more gross and 
flagrant sins than those associated with usury in this 
passage. They are all, always and everywhere, sinful. 
In no condition can they be lawful and right. 

One of the answers familiar to both Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel when the people were reproved for their sins 
and exhorted to forsake them, that the divine judg- 
ments might be removed, was this^ that their suffer- 
ings were not on their own account, but for the sins 
of their fathers. They thus met the charge of per- 
sonal sins and claimed their sufferings were inherited 
and unavoidable. Their fathers had indulged in sin 
and they must reap the consequences. They com- 
plained that this was hardness in God. They ex- 
pressed this murmur by a proverb. Jer. 31 : 29 : ''The 



Denunciation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 33 

fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's 
teeth are set on edge." 

The answer of the prophet Jeremiah briefly is, that 
every one shall answer for his own sin. Jer. 31: 30: 
"But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every 
man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set 
on edge." 

This same proverb was repeatedly given to Ezekiel, 
as an excuse for continuing in sins, even when the 
judgments of God were upon them. The word of 
the Lord came more fully and explicitly to him. 

Ezekiel declares that the sins of the fathers were 
visited on the children only when they continued in 
their father's iniquity. That those who forsook the 
sins of their fathers and were righteous, were free 
from the punishment of the unrighteous parents. 

Ezekiel 18 : 1-17 : "The word of God came unto 
me again, sayings What mean ye, that ye use this 
proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The 
fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's 
teeth are set on edge. 

As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have 
occasion to use this proverb in Israel. Behold, all 
souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the 
soul of the son is mine : the soul that sinneth, it shall 
die. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful 
and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, 
neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house 
of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife. 



34 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

neither hath come near to a menstruous woman^ (i. e, 
neither hath committed a rape,) and hath not 
oppressed an}^, but hath restored to the debtor his 
pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his 
bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with 
a garment. He that hath not given forth upon usury, 
neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn 
his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment 
between man and man. Hath walked in my statutes, 
and hath kept my judgments, to deal truly; he is just, 
he shall surely live, saith the Lord God." 

'*If he beget a son that is a robber, a shedder of 
blood, and that doeth the like to any one of these 
things; and that doeth not any of those duties but 
even hath eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his 
neighbor's wife, hath oppressed the poor and needy, 
hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, 
and hath lifted his eyes to the idols, hath committed 
abomination, hath given forth upon usury, and hath 
taken increase: Shall he then live? He shall not 
live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall 
surely die; his blood shall be upon him. Now, lo, 
if he beget a son, that seeth all his father's sins which 
he hath done, and considereth, and doeth not such 
Hke : that hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither 
hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of 
Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's wife, neither 
hath oppressed any, hath not v/ithholden the pledge, 
neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his 



Denunciation of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 35 

bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with 
a garment, that hath taken off his hand from the poor, 
that hath not received usury or increase, hath execu- 
ted my judgments, hath walked in my statutes; he 
shall not die for the iniquity of his father, he shall 
surely live." 

It will be noticed that usury or increase is here men- 
tioned among the grossest and foulest sins of which 
that people were guilty. They are placed by the 
prophet in the worst possible company. He classifies 
them among those things that can never be right. 
There is no qualification of ''increase" great or small, 
nor of "usury" whether the loan be domestic or 
commercial, whether for personal need, or to go into 
business, whether the borrower be poor or rich. 

Usury is mentioned as ''malum per se.'' "Usury and 
increase" are treated as sinful in themselves, just as 
fraud, violence, impurity, and idolatry are sinful, and 
can never be innocent unless their very natures are 
reversed. When there is fraud without dishonesty, 
and violence without injury, and adultery without 
impurity, and idolatry without false worship, then may 
there be "usury and increase" without injustice and 
oppression. "Some sins in themselves and by reason 
of several aggravations are more heinous in the sight 
of God than others," the prophet Ezekiel places 
"usury or increase" in the list of "abominations," 



CHAPTER VI. 
FINANCIAL REFORM BY NEHEMIAH. 

After seventy years of captivity of the Hebrews in 
Chaldea an edict was issued by Cyrus the king per- 
mitting their return to Judea. The most earnest and 
devout had been restless and homesick in the strange 
land. The restoration was led by Zerubbabel who 
accompanied by about five thousand of the most 
devout men from the various families, made their way 
over the long return to their former home. This was 
only about one-sixth of the captive population. 
Many preferred to remain in the land they had now 
adopted, and where some had been prospered, and 
some were perhaps less fervent in their religious zeal. 
This fraction of the people, however, determined to 
re-erect their temple and to cultivate the fields again 
that were given to their fathers and to rebuild the 
nation, the tradition of whose glory never failed to 
stir their hearts. 

Eighty years later another company under the 
priest and scholar, Ezra, authorized by Artaxerxes, 
joined the first colony that had returned to re-occupy 
their own land. 

A few years later another company was led by the 
patriot, Nehemiah. Nehemiah was in an honorable 
and lucrative position in the first court upon earth, 
(36) 



Financial Reform by Nehemiah. 37 

yet he grieved over the misfortunes of his own people, 
and especially over the reported distress of the re- 
turned exiles. He sought leave of absence and a 
commission to return and co-work with his brethren 
for their complete re-establishment at Jerusalem. 

The leave of absence was cheerfully granted and a 
broad commission given to take with him any who 
wished to return. The revenues of the king were 
placed at his disposal and the governors of the prov- 
inces were ordered to assist and further his work. A 
large company of the earnest and devout returned 
with him, confident of his protection and in sympathy 
with his mission. He deliberately reviewed the work 
to be done, made careful plans and was greatly suc- 
cessful. 

The people were obedient. They cheerfully 
endured the privations and dangers in their devotion 
to their country, and in the hope of retrieving the 
fortunes of their depressed people. 

Enemies appeared, who threatened to estop their 
work, but some worked while others watched, with 
arms in hand, ready to defend. Some wrought with 
one hand and held a weapon for ready defence in the 
other. Nehemiah and his aides, and many of the 
people, did not take off their clothes, but were on 
duty constantly — so devoted were they to the cause 
in which they were engaged, regaining their homes 
and re-establishing the worship of their fathers and 
rebuilding the nation. 



38 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

But there was a strange interruption in this patriotic 
work. A sordid covetousness possessed their nobles 
and rulers. While the people were absorbed in their 
patriotic service, these persons were planning suc- 
cessfully to despoil them. 

A cry of distress came to the ears of Nehemiah. 
The people found, now that they had made the sacri- 
fice and suffered deprivations and cheerfully given 
their labors for the common good, they were deprived 
of their blessings and enslaved. 

This enslavement was not to foreign rulers, but to 
those of their own blood. A division had grown up 
among their own kindred. Some had grown rich 
and become their masters. Others were in hopeless 
poverty. The distinctions came gradually or grew up 
among them, possibly unobserved : the rich becoming 
richer and the poor poorer, until the nobles held their 
lands and were selling their sons and daughters as 
chattels. 

This condition was hopeless, after all their struggles 
for nearly a hundred years to re-establish their institu- 
tions. Neither they nor their children could, under 
those conditions, enjoy the fruit of all their efforts. 
This was no fault of theirs. There had been times of 
dearth and harvest failure, when some with large 
famihes were in need. The king's tribute, too, was 
heavy upon them and some were not able to pay and 
they were compelled to borrow, but had to give mort- 
gages upon their land as security. Now lands, homes 



Financial Reform by Nehemiah. 39 

and all, had passed to the creditors and they were 
despondent and helpless. 

This cry caused Nehemiah great distress, but 
Nehemiah was not like Ezra, a devout and learned 
priest, but without executive power, who in a like 
position gave way to unmitigated grief. Nehemiah 
was equally patriotic and conscientious, but he 
was also a strong leader and an independent com- 
mander. He did not call together the nobles and 
rulers charged with oppression and ask them what he 
should do. He had none of their counsel. He took 
counsel with himself, his own conscience, his own 
judgment, and worked out an independent, indi- 
vidual policy which he should pursue. 

His sympathy was with the suffering people, and 
he determined to espouse their cause and to correct 
their wrongs. He then called the nobles and rulers 
and charged them to their face with oppression. He; 
laid "the ax at the root of the tree" and charged the^; 
fault to their coveteousness, to the exacting of usury' 
or interest. It was this, he declared, that had brought 
them to wealth, but driven others to poverty. He 
demanded reparation. When they were slow to 
yield, he called a convocation of the people and 
aroused them to a due sense of the wrong they had 
been enduring, and laid bare the sins of the rulers and 
nobles. He showed the oppression by comparing 
their sordid and greedy conduct with the unselfish, 
self-sacrifice of himself and others for the common 



40 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Vieiv of Usury. 

good. While he and the patriotic people were busy 
with hand and brain in rebuilding the nation and 
fighting the enemies, these usurers were busy getting 
in their work of ruin, gathering the property into 
their own hands and enslaving the patriots. 

The usurers were not able to withstand this on- 
slaught of the chief commander and the aroused 
people, and they made no reply. Their conduct had 
so evidently been contrary both to the letter and spirit 
of their own law, they were compelled to yield and to 
say meekly, ^'We will do as you have said." 

Then he stated the terms and conditions of the 
reform he would institute. 

1. They must return the pledges they had taken 
for debts, without reserve. The people must not be 
deprived of their land, tools, or instruments of produc- 
tion. The foreclosure of mortgages must be set aside 
and the people again given possession of their lands. 

2. Interest must be returned or credited upon the 
debts. If the interest equaled the debt, then the debt 
was fully discharged. If more than the principal had 
been paid, then it must be returned in money or in 
the product of lands taken in foreclosure, the wine or 
oil or fruits and grains must be returned. Thus only 
could the wrongs be corrected and righteous adjust- 
ment be made. 

There then followed a general restoration of 



Financial Reform by Nehemiah. 41 

pledges and a cancelling of debts that had been paid 
once in interest, and a repaying of any surplus. 

3. They must take a solemn vow that this sin shall 
henceforth be unknown among them. The law 
against usury or interest must henceforth be carefully 
obeyed. These distinctions that had grown up among 
them must disappear forever, and the cause of the 
poverty of the many and the wealth of the few must 
be shunned. 

To these conditions the usurers assented, made 
ashamed by the conduct of the noble patriot in con- 
trast with their own selfishness, though they had not 
yielded until awed and compelled by the indignation 
of the people, which Nehemiah had enkindled against 
them. 

This positive enforcement of the law against the 
taking of increase on any loan, makes unmistakably 
clear the interpretation of the law by the devout, 
earnest, sincere, God-fearing Hebrews^ down to the 
close of the Old Testament Canon. 

Eeferences: Ezra, Nehemiah, Bible Dictionaries- 



CHAPTER VII. 

TEACHINGS OF THE MASTER. 

Psalmist and prophets had sung of the exalted 
character of the coming Messiah. "Thou art fairer 
than the children of men: grace is poured into thy 
lips." "And his name shall be called Wonderful, 
Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, 
The Prince of Peace." 

At his coming he lifted to a higher plane, by his 
precepts and example, the ideal of a true, noble and 
worthy human life. By his teachings and by his life 
of utter unselfishness he revealed clearly the exalted 
character and conduct that conformed to the Divine 
will. 

1. Our Lord's character forbids that we should 
think of him for a moment as devoted to the gather- 
ing of worldly wealth. He came to minister unto, 
not to serve himself. Self-seeking was foreign to his 
nature. A great truth was spoken by the scoffers. 
"He saved others, himself he cannot save." 

He who strives to follow in his footsteps cannot 
serve himself. 

The whole drift of a great unselfish Christ-like soul 
must be for others. The whole current of his thought 
and effort during his life must be, to be helpful to 
others. Studying and striving to help others, he can- 

(42) 



Teachings of the Master. 43 

not seek wealth. ^'Ye cannot serve God and 
mammon." 

It is out of harmony with the whole life and all the 
teachings of the Master that he should encourage or 
permit a means of increasing wealth forbidden by the 
laws given by Moses and classed among the vilest of 
sins by the prophets. 

2. Again : He did not undo the teachings of the 
prophets, but enlarged their scope. He showed by 
word and example how the true spirit of the teachings 
of the old dispensation led to self-sacrifice for the 
welfare of others. Matt. 5 : 17 : "Think not that I 
am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am 
not come to destroy but to fulfill." 

Fulfill, here, is more than to obey. It is in antithe- 
sis with destroy, and means to perfect and complete. 

The old ceremonial forms of religious w^orship, 
pointed to the advent of one who should be a perfect 
sacrifice for sin, typified by the daily sacrifice of bulls 
and rams. The sacrifice typified, was completed in 
Him. 

The moral enactments were not set aside, but they 
were given a completed meaning; that is they were 
made to reach beyond the external to the hidden 
desires and affections of the heart. He taught that 
mere external compliance was not sui^cient in the 
All Seeing Eye. The affections and desires of the 
soul must be in agreement. 

Thus we have the explanation of the law of chastity, 



44 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

completed, requiring purity of the soul. So murder 
is not merely the external act, but the law for murder, 
completed, forbids enmity or hatred hidden in the 
heart. 

The requirements for mutual helpfulness were also 
perfected or completed. 

The old law required the helping of a brother in 
need. 

Deut. 15 : 7, 8 : "If there be among you a poor man 
of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in the 
land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt 
not harden thy hearty nor shut thine hand from thy 
poor brother. But thou shalt open thine hand wide 
unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his 
need, in that which he wanteth." 

This was completed so as to extend the help to all 
sufferers, though not kindred nor friendly, and though 
they may not be able nor willing to repay. Luke 
6 : 35 : "But love ye your enemies, and do good, and 
lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall 
be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest : 
for he is kind unto the unthankful, and to the evil." 

The old law permitted the lender to take a pledge 
to secure the return of "as much again," that is, the 
loan without interest. The Master enjoins being 
helpful though the principal should never be repaid. 
To take a pledge or mortgage and add the interest 
would greatly harden the conditions for the borrower. 



Teachings of the Master. 45 

It would be a step backward and not forward in the 
way of helpfulness to others. 

Ag'ain, the year of Jubilee was a kind of legal time 
limit to debts. All obligations were then cancelled. 
No debt could be collected. The selfish Hebrew 
feared to make a loan shortly before Jubilee lest it 
should not be repaid promptly and his claim would 
become worthless. Deut. 15 : 9 : "Beware that there 
be no thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The 
seventh year, the year of release is at hand ; and thine 
eye be evil toward thy poor brother, and thou givest 
him naught; and he cry unto the Lord against thee 
and it be sin unto thee." In his heart the old Hebrew 
might have a desire to press his claim but the law pro- 
tected the debtor. This law for the release of the 
debtor from the payment of principal without interest 
is completed so as to require sincere and hearty for- 
giveness. 

Our Lord taught his disciples to ask for forgive- 
ness of God only as they forgave their debtors. Matt. 
6 : 12 : "And forgive us our debts^ as we forgive bur 
debtors." The commercial terms here used show 
this to be the completion of the law as touching the 
creditor and his released debtor. 

3. Again, he broke down the artificial barriers, the 
distinction of Hebrew and Gentile, Greek and Bar- 
barian, bond and free. 

The love and sympathy and helpfulness among men 
Avas no longer to be limited to such narrow bounds, 



46 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

but must be wide as the race. "Who is my neighbor?" 
is so answered that every man must be neighbor to 
every other man, and the object of his care and help. 
All are of one blood, and all God's children. He gave 
one law for all classes and conditions in all times. He 
so expounded the old commandments and so con- 
densed them, that they became the one law of love. 
Whosoever is governed by supreme love to God, and 
loves his neighbor as himself, has fulfilled the law. He 
would thus bind all men together, and all to the 
throne of God, by the one bond of love. 

But he further intensified the obligations of love, 
by his own special command. John 15 : 12 : "This is 
my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have 
loved you." And he adds it to the decalogue, John' 
13 : 34 : "A new commandment I give unto you, that 
ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also 
love one another." This new command requires that 
men shall love their brethren above themselves and 
be ready to sacrifice for their welfare. As he gave his 
life, so also he commanded that men should sacrifice 
for their fellows. 

Those who hear his voice and have the spirit of 
obedience go to the ends of the earth, and make any 
sacrifice that may be required for the uplifting of 
fallen men. 

The law forbidding the Hebrews exacting usury of 
their brethren, of the stranger who had accepted their 
faith and kept the passover, of the stranger, sojourner 



Teachings of the Master. 47 

who dwelt among them, of everybody except the 
Canaanite who was under the condemnation of God, 
could not have been annulled or suspended by the 
divine Master who thus draws together and embraces 
as one family the whole race. The ties of Christian 
brotherhood are not less strong than the ties of He- 
brew blood. The converts from heathen to Christian 
faith are not less dear to the missionary than the prose- 
lytes to the Hebrew faith were to the Pharisees. The 
foreigner who comes into a Christian community 
must not be treated with less justice and kindness 
than the wandering Arab who strolled into Jerusalem 
for a trade. It cannot be that the relation between 
Christians is like that between the Hebrew and the 
criminal Canaanites who were convicted of capital 
crimes and under sentence of death. As usury was 
repugnant to that spirit of justice and brotherly love 
that obtained in the Hebrew State, much more is it 
repugnant to that closer brotherhood into which we 
are drawn by the divine Lord. 

4. Again, He was a friend of the poor and lowly. 
This was foretold by the song of the virgin^ when 
assured that she should be the mother of the Savior. 
Luke 51 : 52, 53 : ''He hath put down the mighty from 
their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath 
filled the hungry with good things; and the rich He 
hath sent empty away." 

The prophets foretold that He should be the friend 



48 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

of the poor. He pointed John to the fulfilment of 
these prophecies in proof of his Messiahship. 

In his first address in the explanation of the new 
dispensation he began by saying, ''Blessed are the 
poor in spirit." The literal rendering would be, 
''Blessed are the poor, to the Spirit." This is the 
dative singular with the definite article. He is speak- 
ing of external conditions as contrasted with spiritual 
blessings, and those conditions thought wretched in 
the world were especially favorable for the develop- 
ment of grace. The poor_, humble, mourning, suffer- 
ing, and persecuted were especially blessed in his 
kingdom. 

The word rendered poor does not mean pauper. 
There is a great difference. The poor may be indus- 
trious, self-reliant and self-supporting. There is no 
hint of dependence. 

In Luke he says, "Blessed are ye poor." When at 
the rich man's table, he told his host that he would be 
more blessed if he should make the next feast to the 
poor and defective, that could make him no return. 

He was uncompromising in his denunciation of the 
rich. Luke 6 : 24 : "But woe unto you that are rich, 
for ye have received your consolation." He showed 
the danger of riches in the parable of the sower. 
Matt. 13 : 22 : "He also that received seed among 
thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of 
this world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the 
word, and it becometh unfruitful." 



Teachings of the Master. 49 

Where grace is to be cultivated and flourish, the 
''greed of gain" must not enter. The young man who 
came tp him, whom he loved for his sweet disposition 
and excellent character, he turned away by the answer 
that his wealth was incompatible with his salvation. 
He must part from his riches. When the disciples 
were surprised, he made it more emphatic, Matt. 
19 : 24 : "And again I say unto you, it is easier for a 
camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a 
rich man to enter the kingdom of God." And when 
they felt that this made salvation impossible, he de- 
clared it could only be possible by the exercise of 
omnipotent, divine grace. 

Zaccheus, the one rich man whose conversion is 
recorded, surrendered his ill-gotten gain fourfold and 
gave away half of the remainder before salvation came 
to his house. The temptation to trust and lean upon 
riches is irresistible. 

Our Lord did not make wealth more dangerous 
than under the Mosaic dispensation by removing the 
restraint that was there put upon it. As a friend to the 
poor he did not give wealth an advantage it did not 
have before. 

5. The whole drift of his teachings limited and 
restrained accumulation of wealth. The parable of the 
rich fool is a forcible presentation of its human folly 
on the earthly side. 

"Whose shall these things be?" 

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 



50 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves 
break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves 
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth 
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and 
steal: For where your treasure is, there will your 
heart be also." 

The result is irresistible; when engaged in storing 
earthly treasure, the heart will be earthly ; or if laying 
up treasures in heaven, the heart will reach heaven- 
ward. He who labors for a heavenly reward, will be 
heavenly minded. 

Treasures are stored for eternity, when used for the 
bringing out of that which shall survive the grave ; for 
the bringing out the highest divine type of manhood 
and womanhood, in ourselves, in our children, and in 
all the children of men. 

Treasures expended in the development of immor- 
tals shall be found when the earthly and temporal 
scenes have passed away. That which is expended 
in the uplifting of the race shall be our eternal reward. 

Giving, giving, not hoarding is commended. Pro- 
ductive industry he enforced by his example, the 
carpenter that wrought for his daily bread. He chose 
workmen to be his followers. He taught economy in 
the command to take up the fragments of the food 
miraculously created "that nothing be lost," yet unre- 
served giving was the lesson he inculcated and 
illustrated in his life. To follow his example, we must 
produce and produce much, yet what we gain is to be 



Teachings of the Master. 51 

expended, so as to promote the highest welfare of all 
mankind. We must not store the fruits of our labor, 
but expend, not as a spendthrift who wastes, but 
judiciously and wisely for God and man. Our giving 
is only limited by the ability and facility to produce. 
Our Lord did not greatly add to the temptation to 
hoard by delivering the earthly treasures from the 
decay by "moth and rust" and instead permitting 
their increase. Our hoarding of earthly treasures 
must be limited, because of our disposition to trust in 
them. We must always be so dependent that we 
shall pray truly with the spirit of dependence, "Give 
us this day our daily bread." "Give me neither pov- 
erty nor riches ; feed me with food convenient for me." 
Thrift does not require that we shall hoard an 
amount that will support us through life, much less 
that we shall lay up a fortune, that shall free our chil- 
dren from the necessity of productive labor. The 
spirit of the Master's teachings is, that each age shall 
produce and spend its product for its own advance- 
ment, then each succeeding age shall be better fitted 
to produce and care for itself and so advance the com- 
ing generations. "Go work today in my vineyard." 
Now is the time to give and do for the generation yet 
unborn. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
PARABLES OF THE TALENTS AND THE POUNDS. 

Our Lord mentions usury by name only in the 
parables of the talents and pounds. Matt. 25 : 14-30; 
Luke 19 : 12-27. Usury is mentioned in these passa- 
ges incidentally to meet the excuses of worthless 
servants, but in both as the unjust and oppressive act 
of a hard and dishonest man. These references to 
usury are in entire harmony with the expressions of 
David and Solomon, and of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. 

These servants in the parables were slaves, who 
owed their service to their master and for whom he 
was responsible. 

The lesson in both parables is the necessity of faith- 
fulness. The faithful servants are rewarded and the 
unfaithful punished in both. Yet there is a special 
lesson in each. 

The parable of the talents shows that an equal 
reward shall be given all who are equally faithful, 
though the means and opportunities afforded one may 
far exceed those granted another. One was given 
five talents and another but two ; one gained five and 
the other two, yet both equally faithful, are directed 
to enter into the joy of their lord. 

The unfaithful servant brings his talent with an 
excuse, which is a charge against the character of his 
(52) 



Parables of the Talents and the Pounds. 53 

master, "I knew thee that thou art an hard man reap- 
ing where thou hast not sown, and gathering where 
thou hast not strewed," "so there thou hast which is 
thine." 

The master in reply showed the inconsistency of 
the excuse by assuming that he bore the hard charac- 
ter charged upon him by his slave, *'Thou wicked and 
slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I 
sowed not, and gather where I have not strewed: 
Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the 
exchangers, and then at my coming I should have 
received mine own with usury." It is "interest" in the 
Revised Version. 

This interview may be paraphrased as follows : 

The unfaithful servant said: "I know the kind of 
a man you are. You are dishonest. You take what 
does not belong to you. You reap what other people 
sow, and you take up what others earn. I was afraid 
of you: Here is all that you gave me and all that 
belongs to you." 

The master said : "You are merely excusing your- 
self. You are a lazy faithless slave. If I am the hard 
man you say I am, taking what does not belong to me 
and gathering the sowings and earnings of others, 
you could have met that condition without trouble to 
yourself, by giving my money to the usurers and then 
at my coming I could have received my unjust gain. 
Your excuse is inconsistent, you condemn yourself. 



54 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

You are an indolent and worthless slave. Begone to 
your punishment." 

It is clearly implied that unearned increase, reaping 
and gathering without sowing, could be gained 
through the exchangers. If this was what was de- 
manded, the servant could have secured this with no 
effort on his part. His charge against the master was 
a mere pretence to excuse his own want of personal 
faithfulness, and the master's reply was fitted to this 
pretense. 

This is in entire harmony with the opinion our 
Lord expressed of the exchangers when he called 
them thieves and drove them out of the temple. It 
would be wholly inconsistent for him to advise an 
honest and faithful servant to place any portion of the 
property in their hands. His advice can only come 
from the standpoint of a dishonest master such as his 
servant called him. 

The parable of the pounds shows the degrees of 
faithfulness in those who have equal opportunities. 
With the same opportunities one may far surpass 
another, because more faithful to his trust, his reward 
is proportionately greater. 

In this parable each servant received the same, but 
the gains and rewards differ. By diligence one 
gained ten ponds and is commended and given 
authority over ten cities. Another gained five 
pounds. He is also commended and given authority 
over five cities. 



Parables of the Talents and the Pounds. 65 

Another, who had given no service, came with his 
pound but without increase. This was a proof of his 
unfaithfulness. He endeavors to shield himself like 
the servant with the talent, by charging injustice and 
oppression on his master. "I feared thee because 
thou art an austere man : thou takest up that thou 
layest not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow." 

His master turned on him because his own reason 
was inconsistent with his conduct and a mere shield 
for his indolence and worthlessness. "Out of thine 
own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. 
Thou knowest that I was an austere man, taking up 
that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow. 
Wherefore gavest thou not my money into the bank, 
that at my coming I might have required mine own 
with usury." 

This interview may also' be paraphrased. 

The unfaithful slave came and said : "Lord I have 
carefully kept all that thou gavest me. I knew that 
thou wast an exacting master, taking what did not 
belong to you and gathering what others sow." 

The master says : "Now stop right there and I will 
judge you by your own excuse out of your own 
mouth. You say you knew me to be exacting and 
dishonest, taking more than belonged to me. Now, 
knowing this, why did you not serve me by giving my 
money to the bank, and then at my coming you could 
have brought me my money with my unjust gain and 
that would have pleased a hard man like me, without 



56 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

effort on your part. You are only giving this as an 
excuse for your own unfaithfulness. You are a 
wicked slave." 

The master admits that he would be a hard man, if 
he reaped what another sowed, or took up what 
belonged to another, but assuming that this was his 
character, even this could have been met without 
trouble to the slave through the bank. This is a clear 
recognition of usury as unjust gain. 

Exchangers were little more than the pawn-brokers 
of today and a bank was a pawn-shop where pledges 
were stored. The money loaned upon any pawn was 
much less than its full value. The increase of the 
loan soon made it more than the value of the pledge 
which was then forfeited, and the pawn was sold by 
the broker. 

These parables are here dwelt upon, for they are so 
frequently misunderstood and misapplied. In a large 
volume on "Banking," the writer found the words of 
the master quoted, ''Wherefore then gavest not thou 
my money into the bank, that at my coming I might 
have required my own with usury." And they were 
quoted as a solemn direction of the divine Master to 
deposit money in the bank. 

To quote from these parables in the defense of 
usury is as flagrant a perversion of the truth as the 
famous quotation to prove that Paul encouraged theft. 
''Let him that stole, steal." 

The lessons of these parables are in entire harmony 



Parables of the Talents and the Pounds. 57 

with the law of Moses and the teachings of the 
prophets and Nehemiah. In these parables the 
usurer is presented as a hard man, exacting that 
which he has not earned and to which he has no right. 
The teachings of the Master did not permit what 
had been forbidden in all the ages. 



CHAPTER IX. 
PRACTICE OF THE DISCIPLES. 

The conditions in the very early church were not 
such as to make prominent the sin of usury. Many 
of the disciples were very poor and from the humblest 
walks of life. I Cor. 1 : 27-28 : "But God hath chosen 
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; 
and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to 
confound the things that are mighty; and the base 
things of the worlds and things which are despised, 
hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not, 
to bring to nought things that are." 

The practice of the disciples was, however, in entire 
harmony with the teachings of Moses and the Master, 
and in accord with the prohibition of usury. Later, 
in the time of the apostolic fathers when the church 
came face to face with this sin, there was but one voice 
and that in the denunciation, for the fathers were 
unanimous in its condemnation. 

(1) The first disciples did not loan, but gave to 
their needy brethren. The early converts held their 
property so subject to a general call that some have 
thought they had a community of goods. 

Acts 2 • 44, 45 : "And all that believed were 
together, and had all things common j >5^ * * and 
(58) 



Practice of the Disciples. 59 

sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to 
all men, as every man had need." 

It is evident they did not assist their brethren with 
''loans," but with gifts; much less did they take the 
opportunity to secure increase on loans. 

The suffering poor were their especial care. They 
gave of their poverty for the relief of the suffering. 
Many called by the Spirit were in want, and many 
came to want through the severe persecutions to 
which they were subjected. This was especially true 
of the converts in Jerusalem. For these large collec- 
tions were received from the churches in Macedonia 
and in Corinth. 

They were commanded to care for the needy of 
their own house. I Tim. 5:8: "But if any provide 
not for his own, and especially for those of his own 
house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an 
infidel." Paul, in giving directions to Timothy, as 
to the care of their poor, requires aid to be given to 
"widows indeed," those who have no children; but 
those who have children or nephews are to look to 
them and be supported by them, and if any person 
refuses to care for his widowed mother or grand- 
mother or dependent aunt, "he hath denied the faith 
and is worse than an infidel." 

(2) They were diligent in business. They pro- 
vided things honest in the sight of all men. 

Paul set the example during his itinerate ministry 
by working at his trade to secure his support and his 



60 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

dictum has been accepted as both divine and human 
wisdom ever since. "If any will not work neither 
shall he eat." 

Diligence was enjoined for self-support, and that 
others might be helped. Eph. 4:28: "Let him that 
stole, steal no more; but rather let him labor, work- 
ing with his hands, the things which is good, that he 
may have to give to him that needeth." The effort 
was first by labor to be independent and then also to 
come to the relief of the feeble, the sick, the poor, and 
the needy. That a man could honestly secure a liveli- 
hood without productive labor was foreign to their 
way of thinking. If any did not work he did not 
deserve a living, nor was he an honest man. No one 
was at liberty to be idle. Productive effort must 
not be relaxed. There was no retiring for the enjoy- 
ment of a competency. 

There was no thought of such a provision to free 
j;hem from the effort for the daily bread. The surplus 
product was given for the aid of others, to those who 
had claims of kinship first, then to all who had need. 

The instant a man failed to produce he began to 
consume. There is no hint anywhere that it entered 
any of their minds that they could stop production 
and live in ease from the increase of what they had 
produced and the supply grow no less ; that the meal 
and oil should not fail, but be handed down unim- 
paired to their children. 

(3) Covetousness was hated and denounced and 



Practice of the Disciples. 61 

classed with the most flagrant violations of the moral 
law. 

Covetousness is an inordinate regard for wealth of 
any kind. This may be shown in the greed of seek- 
ing it, without proper regard for the rights of others ; 
or in parsimony or stinginess in holding it, when there 
are rightful claims upon it. 

James 5 : 1-6 : "Go to now, ye rich men, weap and 
howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are 
moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and 
the rust of them shall be witness against you, and shall 
eat your flesh as it were fire. You have heaped 
treasure together for the last days. 

"Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped 
down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, 
crieth : and the cries of them which have reaped are 
entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabbaoth. 

"Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and 
been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a 
day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the 
just, and he doth not resist you." 

Covetousness may also be shown in undue respect 
for w^ealth when in the hands of others. This is 
reproved in James 2 : 1-7. "My brethren, have not 
the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, 
with respect of persons. For if there come unto your 
assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, 
and there come also a poor man in vile raiment ; and 



62 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, 
and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and 
say to the poor man, Stand thou there, or sit here 
under my footstool : Are ye not then partial in your- 
selves^ and become the judges of evil thoughts? 
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen 
the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the 
kingdom which he hath promised them that love him? 
But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men 
oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? 
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which 
ye are called ?" 

Covetousness was a secret sin often indulged when 
the outward forms of righteousness were observed. 
Usurers were the open representatives of flagrant 
covetousness in all the ages. Usury was not named 
among them as becometh saints. 

(4) The early disciples kept out of debt. The 
early Christians were not borrowers. In both dispen- 
sations borrowing was only resorted to in hard 
necessity. The borrower was second to the beggar. 
The borrowing was but for a short time, and the loan 
was returned as soon as absolute wants were supplied. 

The doctrine and practice of the early church was 
to owe no man anything. Rom. 13 : 8 : "Owe no man 
anything, but to love one another : for he that loveth 
another hath fulfilled the law." 

Indebtedness was to be avoided as compromising 



Practice of the Disciples. 63 

the faith in the eyes of others and detrimental to the 
development of grace in the disciples. 

This was the direct command of Paul. This com- 
mandment required the payment of all honest obliga- 
tions. The Christian then as now who failed to 
acknowledge his obligations and meet them in full as 
he was able was wanting in the spirit of righteousness 
and unfaithful to his own convictions of right and 
duty. 

The payment of a debt was the return in full of the 
loan received. 

Any Christian conscience at that time would have 
been satisfied with the settlement approved and com- 
manded by Nehemiah. The debt was fully discharged 
when payments equaled the loan by whatever name 
those payments were called. 

This text also required that they keep out of debt. 
By no distortion of the text can it be made to mean 
less. Chalmers on this passage comments as follows : 
"But though to press the duty of our text in the 
extreme and rigorous sense of it — yet I would fain 
aspire towards the full and practical establishment of 
it, so that the habit might become at length universal, 
not only paying all debts, but even by making con- 
science never to contract, and therefore never to owe 
any. For although this might never be reached, it 
is well it should be looked at, nay moved forward to, 
as a sort of optimism, every approximation to which 
were a distinct step in advance, both for the moral and 



64 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

economic good of society. For, first, in the world 
of trade, one can not be insensible to the dire mischief 
that ensues from the spirit often so rampant, of an 
excessive and unwarrantable speculation — so as to 
make it the most desirable of all consummations that 
the system of credit should at length give way, and 
what has been termed the ready-money system, the 
system of immediate payments in every commercial 
transaction, should be substituted in its place. The 
adventurer who, in the walks of merchandise, 
trades beyond his means is often actuated by a passion 
as intense, and we fear too, as criminal, as is the game- 
ster, who in the haunts of fashionable dissipation, 
stakes beyond his fortune. But it is not the injury 
alone, which the ambition that precipitates him into 
such deep and desperate hazards, brings upon his own 
character, neither is it the ruin that the splendid 
bankrupty in which it terminates brings upon his own 
family. 

These are not the only evils which we deprecate — 
for over and above these there is a far heavier disaster, 
a consequence in the train of such proceedings, of 
greatly wider and more malignant operation still, on 
the habit and condition of the working classes, gath- 
ered in hundreds around the mushroom establishment, 
and then thrown adrift among the other wrecks of its 
overthrow, in utter helplessness and destitution on 
society. This frenzy of men hasting to be rich, Hke 
fever in the body natural, is a truly sore distemper in 



Practice of the Disciples. 65 

the body politic. No doubt they are also sufferers 
themselves, piercing their own hearts through with 
many sorrows; but it is the contemplation of this 
suffering in masses, which the sons and daughters of 
industry in humble life so often earn at their hands, 
that has ever led me to rank them among the chief 
pests and disturbers of a commonwealth." 

To this may be added an extract from ''Short In- 
structions for Early Masses by the Paulist Fathers." 
"The fact of the matter is, dear brethren, that there is 
too much laxity of conscience among our people on 
this question of contracting debts, of borrowing 
money, of running up bills with little or no hope of 
ever paying them. We have all of us no doubt come 
across people who consider themselves quite religious 
who owe money to their neighbors for years, and 
never make an effort to pay what they owe or even 
to offer an excuse for their negligence in such import- 
ant matters. 

There are some professional debtors who think the 
world owes them a living, and who spend a good part 
of their time figuring out how much they can get out 
of the land and from those who dwell thereon. To 
have to pay rent is their greatest grievance, and after 
being trusted for a few months, they find it much 
cheaper to move to other quarters than to pay what 
they owe. 

Then there are others who must dress extrava- 
gantly, no matter what it costs, and in consequence 



66 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

have nothing left to pay for the things they eat or 
drink. Do they on this account deny themselves any 
of the good things of this Hfe? Not at all; on the 
contrary, every business man will tell you the same 
story — these people want the best and are the most 
exacting in their demands. 

Now, I repeat, there is too much laxity about con- 
tracting debts and too little conscience about the 
necessity of paying for what we use. St. Paul's warn- 
ing should ring in the ears of every debtor: ''Owe 
no man anything." It will not do for such people to 
come to confession and say they contracted debts and 
are not able to pay what they owe. Confession will 
not relieve them of their obligation, and they must 
begin at once and make an effort to lessen the debts 
they owe in the past and learn a lesson in economy 
and strive against contracting new burdens. This 
will help us to clear off the old ones. 

It is not edifying, nor is it conducive to good fellow- 
ship, nor does it help to make our religion better 
known and better loved, to find people, dressed in 
the finest, coming Sunday after Sunday to mass 
while they are heavily in debt to their grocer or 
butcher or landlord, who may be in the very same pew 
with them. This is certain, it convinces such men in 
business that the debtor's reHgion is not very sincere. 

In a word, brethren, it is far better to Hve in less 
pretentious dwellings, dress more soberly and eat 
more sparingly than to owe any man anything. Pay 



Practice of the Disciples. 67 

what thou owest, and then you may walk honestly 
among all men." 

Freedom from debt is necessary to the independ- 
ence of the man who does right and answers only to 
God. Struggle as he may the man is not free who is 
under obligations to others. He is hindered in his 
conduct; he is not always conscious of it, but never- 
theless there is a real binding or fettering of his 
actions. It influences his gifts, for what he holds is 
not his own and the owner may criticize his benevo- 
lence. 

An easy conscience and sound sleep is the portion 
of the man who is under no obligations to another. 
He looks the whole world in the face, who owes no 
man a cent. 

He is free from distracting business relations with 
his brethren and brotherly love may abound. The 
exhortation of Paul is in connection with brotherly 
love, and of all external relations, debt hinders the free 
flow of sympathy among brethren. 

The early disciples endeavored to avoid all debt. 
Much less did they pay a premium for the privilege. 
They only borrowed in hard necessity ; but borrowing 
on usury to make a profit by it was as repellant to the 
Christian conscience then as complicity with theft 
or fraud. It marked a man as anxious to share in 
unrighteous gain. His own conscience placed him 
among those who are discontented with their lawful 
estate and guilty of that covetousness which is idola- 



68 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

try. I Tim. 6 : 6-11 : "But godliness with content- 
ment is great gain. For we brought nothing into 
this worlds and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 
And having food and raiment, let us be therewith 
content. But they that will be rich fall into tempta- 
tion and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful 
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which 
while some coveted after, they have erred in the faith, 
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 
But thou, O man of God, flee these things ; and follow 
after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, 
meekness." 



CHAPTER X. 
CHURCH HISTORY. 

The Church, from the time of the apostles, was 
emphatic in its denunciation of usury. 

Schaff-Herzog- says: "All the apostolic fathers 
condemned the taking of usury." The Encyclopedia 
of Religious Knowledge declares the same. 

Chrysostom said : "Nothing is baser in this world 
than usury, nothing more cruel." 

Basil describes a scene so real that we can scarcely 
realize that he wrote over fifteen hundred years ago. 
After stating the usurer's protestations of having no 
money, to the victim, who seeks a loan without inter- 
est, he says: "Then the suppliant mentions interest 
and utters the word security. All is changed. The 
frown is relaxed; with a genial smile he recounts old 
family connections. Now it is 'My friend, I will see 
if I have any money by me. Yes, there is that very 
sum which a man, I know, has left in my hands in 
deposit for profit. He named a very heavy interest. 
However, I will certainly take something off and give 
it to you on better terms.' With pretenses like this 
he fawns on the wretched victim and induces him to 
swallow the barb." 

Of the man who has borrowed on interest, he says : 

"At first he is bright and joyous and shines with 

(69) 



70 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury, 

another's splendor * * * ^^^ night brings no 
rest, no sun is bright. He hates the days that are 
hurrying on, for time as it runs adds the interest to its 
tale." 

The fathers unanimously condemned the taking of 
interest. TertulHan, Cyprian, Ambrose, Augustine 
and Jerome can be quoted against it. The popes 
followed the teachings of the fathers and forbade it 
under severe penalties. The priests guilty of this sin 
were degraded from their orders. The laymen found 
guilty were excommunicated. Interest paid could be 
reclaimed, not only from the usurer but from his 
heirs. A bargain, though confirmed by an oath never 
to claim back the interest paid, was declared not 
binding. This action of the popes was confirmed by 
councils. 

Charlemagne, in France, forbid the taking of 
usury either by priests or laity. 

A council at Westminster (1126) approved the 
degredation of all clergy, who were guilty of this prac- 
tice. 

Archbishop Sands said : *This canker (usury) hath 
corrupted all England." 

A council in Vienna (1311) reafifirmed the denun- 
ciations of previous popes and councils, and then 
adds: "If any shall obstinately persist in the error 
of presuming to affirm that the taking of usury 
is not a sin, we decree that he shall be punished as a 
heretic." 



Church History. 71 

There is no record of the repeal of any of these 
edicts. 

The leaders of the Protestant reformation also 
denounced usury. 

Luther was violent in his opposition, using the 
strongest language he could command. ^'Whoever 
eats up, robs and steals the nourishment of another, 
commits as great a murder, as he who carves a man 
or utterly undoes him. Such does a usurer, and he 
sits the while on his stool, when he ought rather to be 
hanging from the gallows." 

Melancthon, Beza and others are accounted against 
usury. 

The decisions of Ecclesiastical Councils were 
numerous and emphatic until the seventeenth century. 
Since that time interest taking has become common, 
all but universal, but there is no record found any- 
where of its direct approval by any ecclesiastical body. 
The Church has come to tolerate it but has never 
given it official approval. 

Usury has not been included in any creed or con- 
fession of faith, nor has it been directly approved by 
any council or general assembly. 

The truth has not been left in any age without 
its witness. There have always been those more or 
less prominent in the Church who contended that it 
was unjust and oppressive. Some of them have been 
of world-wide distinction. The writer has a letter 
written him by John Clark Ridpath, the historian, 



72 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

expressing his agreement with the views presented 
in these pages. Another of these is brilliant John 
Ruskin, recently deceased. Quotations from him will 
close this review. 

"I have not so perverted my soul nor palsied my 
brain as to expect to be advantaged by that adhesion 
(usury). I do not expect that because I have gath- 
ered much to find Nature or man gathering more for 
me ; to find eighteen pence in my box in the morning 
instead of the shilling as a reward of my continence, 
or to make an income of my Koran by lending it to 
poor scholars. If I think he can read it and will care- 
fully turn the leaves by the outside, he is welcome to 
read it for nothing." 

"Thus in all other possible or conceivabfe cases, the 
moment our capital is increased by having lent it, be 
it but the estimation of a hair, that hair-breadth of 
increase is usury, just as much as stealing a farthing 
is theft no less than stealing a million." 



CHAPTER XL 
CALVIN'S LETTER ON USURY. 

A mere hint of encouragement to the usurer came 
from Calvin. In a letter, to a friend, he hesitatingly 
expressed opinions that have ever since been quoted 
in defense of the practice. He alone of all the re- 
formers took a doubtful stand. He has often been 
referred to and given great credit for his opinion, 
even by those who utterly reject all the doctrines he 
most earnestly advocated. The fear that he expressed 
near the opening, that some word might be seized to 
take more license than he would allow had reason, for 
this letter has been the basis for all the apologies for 
usury that have ever been attempted. In these last 
days all who have tried to present fully the moral law 
as comprehended in the ten commandments have felt 
called upon to make some apology for the prevailing 
practice of usury in connection with the eighth com- 
mand. They all refer to this letter. Sometimes there 
is a brief quotation, given in Latin and left untrans- 
lated, to convince the ignorant, for Calvin wrote in 
Latin. 

Letter of Calvin: De Usuris Responsum. 

"I have not yet essayed what could fitly be ans- 
wered to the question put to me ; but I have learned 

by the example of others with how great danger this 

(73) 



74 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

matter is attended. For if all usury is condemned 
tighter fetters are imposed on the conscience than the 
Lord himself would wish. Or if you yield in the least, 
with that pretext, very many will at once seize upon 
unlicensed freedom, which can then be restrained by 
no moderation or restriction. Were I writing to you 
alone I would fear this the less ; for I know your good 
sense and moderation, but as you ask counsel in the 
name of another, I fear, lest he may allow himself far 
more than I wish by seizing upon some word, yet con- 
fident that you will look closely into his character and 
from the matter that is here treated judge what is ex- 
pedient, and to what extent, I shall open my thoughts 
to you. 

"And first, I am certain that by no testimony of 
Scripture is usury wholly condemned. For the sense 
of that saying of Christ, 'Lend, hoping for nothing 
again' (Luke 6 : 35), has up to this time been per- 
verted; the same as another passage when speaking 
of splendid feasts and the desire of the rich to be 
received in turn, he commands them rather to sum- 
mon to these feasts, the blind, the lame, and other 
needy men, who lie at the cross-roads and have not 
the power to make a like return. Christ wished to 
restrain men's abuse of lending, commands them to 
lend to those from whom there is no hope of receiving 
or regaining anything; and his words ought to be 
interpreted, that while he would command loans to 
the poor without expectation of repayment or the 



Calvin's Letter on Usury. 75 

receipt of interest, he did not mean at the same time 
to forbid loans to the rich with interest, any more than 
the injunction to invite the poor to our feasts did not 
imply that the mutual invitation of friends to feasts is 
in consequence prohibited. Again the law of Moses 
was political and should not influence us beyond what 
justice and philanthropy will bear. 

"It could be wished that all usury and the name it- 
self were first banished from the earth. But as this 
cannot be accomplished it should be seen what can be 
done for the public good. Certain passages of Scrip- 
ture remain in the Prophets and Psalms in which the 
Holy Spirit inveighs against usury. Thus a city is 
described as wicked because usury is practiced in the 
forum and streets, but as the Hebrew word means 
frauds in general, this cannot be interpreted so 
strictly. But if we concede that the prophet there 
mentions usury by name, it is not a matter of wonder 
that among the great evils which existed, he should 
attack usury. For wherever gains are farmed out, 
there are generally added, as inseparable, cruelty, and 
numberless other frauds and deceits. 

"On the other hand it is said in praise of a pious 
and holy man 'that he putteth not out his money to 
usury.' Indeed it is very rare for a man to be honest 
and yet a usurer. 

"Ezekiel goes even further (Ezek. 22 : 12). Enumer 
ating the crimes which inflamed the wrath of the Lord 
against the Jews, he uses two words, one of whic) 



76 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

means usury, and is derived from a root meaning to 
consume ; the other word means increase or addition, 
doubtless because one devoted to his private gain 
takes or rather extorts it from the loss of his neighbor. 
It is clear that the prophets spake even more harshly 
of usury because it was forbidden by name among the 
Jews, and when therefore it was practiced against the 
express command of God, it merited even heavier 
censure. 

"But when it is said, that as the cause of our state 
is the same, the same prohibition of usury should be 
retained, I answer that there is some difference in 
what pertains to the civil state. Because the sur- 
roundings of the place in which the Lord placed the 
Jews, as well as other circumstances, tended to this, 
that it might be easy for them to deal among them- 
selves without usury, while our state today is very 
different in many respects. Therefore usury is not 
wholly forbidden among us unless it be repugnant 
both to Justice and to Charity. 

"It is said, 'Money does not beget money.' What 
does the sea beget? What does a house from the let- 
ting of which I receive a rent? Is money born from 
roofs and walls? But on the other hand both the 
earth produces and something is brought from the 
sea which afterward produces money, and the con- 
venience of a house can be bought and sold for 
money. If therefore more profit can be derived from 
trading through the employment of money than from 



Calvin's Letter on Usury. 11 

the produce of a farm, the purpose of which is subsist- 
ence, should one who lets some barren farm to a 
farmer, receiving in return a price or part of the pro- 
duce, be approved, and one who loans money to be 
used for profit be condemned? And when one buys 
a farm for money does not that farm produce other 
money yearly? And whence is derived the profit of 
the merchant? You will say from his diligence and 
his industry. Who doubts that idle money is wholly 
useless? Who asks a loan of me does not intend to 
keep what he receives idle by him. Therefore the 
profit does not arise from the money, but from the 
product that results from its use or employment. I 
therefore conclude that usury must be judged, not by 
a particular passage of Scripture, but simply by the 
rules of equity. This will be made clearer by an 
example. Let us imagine a rich man with large pos- 
sessions in farms and rents, but with little money. 
Another man not so rich, nor with such large pos- 
sessions as the first, but has more ready money. The 
latter being about to buy a farm with his own money, 
is asked by the wealthier for a loan. He who makes 
the loan may stipulate for a rent or interest for his 
money and further that the farm may be mortgaged 
to him until the principal is paid, but until it is paid, 
he will be content with the interest or usury on the 
loan. Why then shall this contract with a mort- 
gage, but only for the profit of the money, be con- 
demned, when a much harsher, it may be, of leasing 
or renting a farm at large annual rent, is approved? 



78 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

"And what else is it than to treat God like a child, 
when we judge of objects by mere words and not from 
their nature, as if virtue can be distinguished from 
vice by a form of words. 

"It is not my intention to fully examine the matter 
here. I wished only to show what you should con- 
sider more carefully. You should remember this, that 
the importance of the question lies not in the words 
but in the thing itself." 

Those acquainted with Calvin's "Institutes" will not 
fail to notice the timid manner in which he treats the 
subject^ as if uncertain of his ground and endeavoring 
to excuse usury to please his friend. This letter is 
wanting in that positive air of assured certainty that 
breathes inspired authority and lends a charm to his 
"Institutes." He is nearest himself when he bursts 
out, "It could be wished that all usury and the name 
itself were banished from the earth." 

The letter is here given in full because often more 
force is carried by the reference to a great name than 
by the study of his argument. A careful reading of 
this letter does not reveal a positive approval of usury. 
He merely excuses it by suggesting other evils that 
he thinks worse; for instance^ that land rentals may 
be worse than the usury of money. He does not men- 
tion the necessary oppression of the poor tenants by 
the loan upon a mortgage. 

It is proof of the weakness of the case when this 
letter is the most favorable that can be presented from 
any ecclesiastic. 



CHAPTER XII. 
PERMANENCY OF THE PROHIBITION. 

It is sometimes urged that the law of Moses with 
regard to usury was not intended to be permanent but 
was only a wise and beneficent regulation for that 
people in their peculiar condition; that as the cere- 
monial was done away by the incoming of the New 
Testament dispensation, so this prohibition was an- 
nulled and should be reckoned among the effete laws 
of the ancient Hebrews. 

In answer to this contention it may be replied : 

(1) This prohibition is not ceremonial. It has no 
connection with the rites and forms of their religion. 
It touches their character and conduct but has no 
place in their forms of worship. 

(2) Nothing can be presented from the Mosaic 
laws to prove that this prohibition was only of a tem- 
porary character. It is in entire harmony with the 
spirit of helpfulness and especially the protection of 
the weak, that is so characteristic of the Mosaic order. 

No induction from any of the Old Testament 
writers can be fairly made to limit its application. The 
prophets place usury in the catalogue of sins that are 
always and everywhere offensive to God. Nehemiah 
condemns it as destructive to personal and civic 
freedom. 

(3) There is no hint of its discontinuance in the 

(79) 



80 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

new dispensation. The Master gave a spiritual com- 
pleteness to this law as he did to all enactments requir- 
ing external moral character. He classed the usurers, 
in his parables, among the dishonest, who took up 
what they had not laid down. 

The disciples, in their poverty and persecutions, 
were not specially tempted by this sin^ and it is not 
therefore prominent in their history. But there is 
nothing in their teachings or practice that is not in 
entire harmony with the binding continuance of the 
Mosaic prohibition, and their practice and teaching 
are just such as we should expect from Christian peo- 
ple in their condition and circumstances who recog- 
nized the prohibition as permanent. 

(4) The apostolic fathers, as the church grew and 
came into contact with the world and was beginning 
to share in the business of the world, to a man, 
regarded the prohibition as in full force and its observ- 
ance as one of the marked characteristics of the 
Christian, distinguishing him from the worldling and 
the Jew. Conditions in the apostolic age did not 
make this prominent but when the conditions 
were changed and the church came in conflict with 
this sin, it is clearly seen that the law was in a con- 
tinuous binding force through the whole period. 

The later fathers were of the opinion, unanimously, 
that it was in full force, not temporary or provincial, 
but binding for all time and upon all people. That 
it is suspended is a modern idea, a suggestion of the 
world to the church within the last few hundred years. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
OUR CHANGED CONDITIONS. 

The changed conditions of the race in these last 
years are urged as a sufficient reason for annulHng this 
law. It is admitted that it was righteous and benefi- 
cent in ages long past but with the new light and new 
conditions of the present it is effete, inapplicable and 
unjust. They call attention to the vast extension of 
commerce, to the marvelously increased facilities for 
travel, transportation and intercommunication ; to the 
innumerable and wonderful inventions that in their 
application have brightened our civilization. They 
exalt present conditions and they belittle the long 
past conditions and thought. 

The prohibition of usury belonged to the past, the 
practice of usury is all but universal in the present^ 
therefore they argue that usury is a part and a neces- 
sary part of our civilization and to revive the old pro- 
hibition would turn the world's civilization backward 
and be as absurd as to now dispense with steam or 
electricity. 

In reply it may be said that the changes are not 
universal, that there are some things that abide, that 
the changes are trifling when compared with those 
things that remain and are permanent. 

1. Human nature remains the same. Man, in 

(8X) 



82 ScripHiralj Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

body and mind, in physiology and psychology, has not 
changed in these thousands of years. That which in 
ages past promoted the health and vigor of his body, 
will secure its best development now. That discipline, 
culture and mental exercise that secured the highest 
intellectual strength in ages past will do the most for 
its best development now. Many things that now 
give splendor to our civilization do not promote 
either the best physical or mental manhood. 

2. Family ties remain. The relation of husband 
and wife, of parents and children, and the duties of 
their several positions in the home have not changed. 
The family remains the social unit as it has been in all 
ages. Sociology, the science of social and political 
organization^, is a permanent science. It does not 
change with the shifting temporal conditions of the 
people. Those things which made for the general 
welfare of ages ago are for the public weal now, and 
those things that endangered the state then are to be 
avoided now. 

3. The moral law remains unchanged and un- 
changeable, with all the brilliant present there is no 
amendment to the ten commandments. The ethical 
nature remains and the voice of conscience, approving 
the same right and condemning the same wrong, is 
identical with the voice of conscience in the time of 
Moses. 

4. The laws of nature have not changed. The 



Our Changed Conditions. 83 



"& 



relation between a cause and its sequence remains. 
Like causes produce like effects. 

No living- thing has charlged its nature. A lion 
now is of the same nature that it was in the time of 
Samson. So with every savage beast that roams the 
jungle. Even the domesticated animals, with all the 
effort and skill of intelligent man, have only been 
smoothed or speeded a little. The horse, cow, sheep, 
or dog have held their old forms and dispositions. 

Seed time and harvest come and go and we are 
dependent for the same shower and sunshine that 
gave Adam his first harvest. 

We know some things they did not know and we 
have bettered our tools, but the natural world has 
shown no signs of change. 

5. The relation of things to each other have not 
changed. Plants must have soil to grow in, animals 
must have vegetation to feed upon. Fish must have 
water. And so with the thousands of relations of 
climate, elements, soils, plants, animals, fishes, birds 
and insects, they are the identical relations sustained 
ages and ages ago. 

6. The nature of money has not changed. Its 
material and form and denominations have been modi- 
fied but the functions of money as a storage of values 
and as a measure of values and as a medium of ex- 
change remain the same. Our gold and silver and 
paper money may be more convenient and more 



84 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

exact, but its functions are just the same as the In- 
dians' wampum. 

The law of supply and demand and the equity in 
commercial transactions, great or small, are un- 
changed. Money could always be used to make or 
gather more money in business. It is no more true 
now than in the times of David or Nehemiah. If this 
had not then been possible; if there had not been 
tempting opportunities, there would have been no sin 
of usury for them to reprove. 

Man's changed conditions are but trifling and 
incidental, relating to himself. They do not affect a 
single natural or moral or economic law. 

The changed conditions, which are urged as a rea- 
son that the prohibition of usury is no longer binding, 
are only the conditions brought about by the violation 
of that law. 

The prohibition of usury is systematically violated. 
The neighbor in the smallest transaction with his 
neighbor exacts usury, though it be but a few cents. 
The credit system has become universal. It is the 
rare exception now to "own what you have" and to 
"pay as you go." Interest bearing bonds are issued 
by the smallest mantifacturing plant, by the great cor- 
poration and by the empire. These conditions do not 
prove usury right. They only show how far true 
business, commercial, and political principles have 
been perverted by this practice. 

If violating a law annuls it, then any law can be 



Our Changed Conditions. 85 

pushed aside. Let the claims of the Sabbath day be 
ignored. Let the houses of worship remain closed 
upon that day. Let work be planned for seven days 
of the week. Let the hum of the mills and the roar 
of commerce go on. Take no note of the Sabbath 
day, either in business or recreation or worship, and 
conditions will soon be upon us, such that we may 
urge as plausibly, that the Sabbath is effete, possible 
to our slow going fathers but inconsistent with the 
necessary rush of our day. 

If the systematic violation of a law annuls it then 
we can quiet the conscience and be dishonest while 
dealing with a Turk in Constantinople and we may lie 
while dickering with a Chinese merchant in Canton. 

If violating a law annuls it, even the seventh com- 
mandment, the violation of which is so offensive to 
decency and its observance so necessary to the purity 
of the home^ may in this way be ruled out as a binding 
obligation. Let polygamy be the order, supported by 
the example of Jacob and David and Solomon, and 
the families be constituted along that line, then en- 
forced monogamy would seem to be a sundering of 
tender ties and hardness toward the cast off Hagars 
that is inconsistent with the Christian spirit. An 
earnest. Godly man, a missionary friend of the writer, 
under whose ministry a heathen chief was converted, 
was misled by the plausibility. The chief had a num- 
ber of wives; he had children by them; he was much 



S6 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

attached to his wives and was fond of his children, and 
they all seemed to love him and clung to him. The 
missionary in the kindness of his heart did not inter- 
fere with the family, permitting the chief to keep his 
wives and placed his name on the church roll of the 
Mission. For this act he was reproved by the ecclesi- 
astical authorities above him. Let pplygamy become 
as universal as usury and even the seventh command- 
ment in its strictness will seem impracticable and 
unkind if not positively cruel. 

It will not do to claim freedom from the prohibition 
of usury because we have organized commerce and 
the state and all society in violation of it. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
AMERICAN REVISION. 

The Revision by the American Committee is the 
latest effort of scholarship to bring King James' 
Version up to date by eliminating effete terms and 
using words in their modern sense. 

The references to usury are here collated so as to 
give a general view of the question from the transla- 
tions of the passages in this the latest Revision. The 
reader will notice that the modern word "interest" is 
substituted for "usury" in nearly every passage. 

Exodus 22 : 25 : "If thou lend money to any of my 
people with thee that is poor^ thou shalt not be to him 
as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest." 

Leviticus 25 : 35-3Y : "And if thy brother be waxen 
poor, and his hand fail with thee, then thou shalt 
uphold him: as a stranger and a sojourner shall he 
live with thee. Take thou no interest of him or in- 
crease, but fear thy God; that thy brother may live 
with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon 
interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase." 

Deuteronomy 23 : 19, 20 : "Thou shalt not lend 
upon interest to thy brother: interest of money, in- 
terest of victuals, interest of anything that is lent upon 
interest: unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon 
interest, but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend 

(87) 



88 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

upon interest, that Jehovah thy God may bless thee 
in all that thou puttest thy hand unto, in the land 
whither thou goest in to possess it." 

Nehemiah 5 : 7-10 : "Then I consulted with myself, 
and contended with the nobles and rulers and said 
unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. 
And I held a great assembly against them. And I 
said unto them^ We after our ability have redeemed 
our brethren the Jews that were sold unto the nations ; 
and would ye even sell your brethren, and should they 
be sold unto us? Then held they their peace and 
found never a word. Also I said. The thing ye do is 
not good : ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God, 
because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 
And I likewise, my brethren and my servants, do lend 
them money and grain. I pray you, let us leave ofif 
this usury." 

The interest exacted by the princes and nobles was 
no doubt so extortionate that it could be called usury 
in the modern legal sense. 

Psalm 15 : 

"Jehovah, Who shall sojourn in thy tabernacles? 
Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? 

He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, 
And speaketh the truth in his heart; 
He that slandereth not with his tongue, 
Nor doeth evil to his friend. 
Nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor; 
In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, 
But who honoreth them that fear Jehovah; 
He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not; 
He that putteth not out his money to interest. 
Nor taketh reward against the innocent. 
He that doeth these things shall never be moved." 



American Revision. 89 

Proverbs 28: 8: "He that augmenteth his sub- 
stance by interest and increase, gathereth it for him 
that hath pity on the poor." 

Jeremiah 15 : 10 : "I have not lent, neither have 
men lent to me; yet every one of them doth curse me." 

King James reads : "I have neither lent upon usury, 
nor have men lent to me upon usury." As Jeremiah 
was protesting his innocence of any wrongdoing the 
early translators inserted what was evidently implied 
while these latest revisors have omitted what was not 
in the original text. 

Ezekiel 18: 1-18: 'The word of Jehovah came 
again unto me saying. What mean ye that ye use this 
proverb, concerning the land of Israel, sayings The 
fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth 
are set on edge? As I live saith the Lord Jehovah, ye 
shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb 
in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine, as the soul of 
the father so also the soul of the son is mine : the soul 
that sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just and do 
that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten 
upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to 
the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his 
neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a woman in 
her impurity^ and hath not wronged any, but hath re- 
stored to the debtor his pledge, hath taken naught by 
robbery, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath 
covered the naked with a garment : he hath not given 
forth upon interest, neither hath taken any increase, 



90 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath 
executed true justice between man and man, hath 
walked in my statutes and hath kept my ordinances, 
to deal truly : he is just, he shall surely live, saith the 
Lord Jehovah. 

"If he beg-et a son that is a robber, a shedder of 
blood, and that doeth any one of these things, and 
that doeth not any of those duties, but even hath 
eaten upon the mountains, and defiled his neighbor's 
wife, hath wronged the poor and needy, hath taken by 
robbery _, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted 
up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, 
hath given forth upon interest, and hath taken in- 
crease ; shall he then live ? He shall not live : he hath 
done all these abominations : he shall surely die ; his 
blood shall be upon him. 

"Now, lo, if he beget a son which seeth all his 
father's sins which he bath done, and feareth and 
doeth not such like; that hath not eaten upon the 
mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols 
of the house of Israel, hath not defiled his neighbor's 
wife, neither hath wronged any, hath not taken aught 
to pledge, neither hath taken by robbery, but hath 
given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the 
naked with a garment; that hath not withdrawn his 
hand from the poor, that hath not received interest 
nor increase, hath executed my ordinances, hath 
walked in my statutes; he shall not die for the iniquity 
of his father, he shall surely live. As for his father, 



American Revision. 91 

because he cruelly oppressed, robbed his brother, and 
did that which is not good among his people, behold, 
he shall die in his iniquity." 

Ezekiel 22 : 6-12 : "Behold, the princes of Israel, 
every one according to his power have been in thee to 
shed blood. In thee have they set light by father and 
mother; in the midst of thee have they dealt by 
oppression with the sojourner; in thee have they 
wronged the fatherless and the widow. Thou hast 
despised mine holy things and hast profaned my sab- 
baths. Slanderous men have been in thee to shed 
blood; and in thee have they eaten upon the moun- 
tains; in the midst of thee they have committed lewd- 
ness. In thee have they uncovered their fathers' 
nakedness; in thee have they humbled her that was 
unclean in her impurity. And one hath committed 
abomination with his neighbor's wife; and another 
hath lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law; and another 
in thee hath humbled his sister, his father's daughter. 
In thee have they taken bribes to shed blood; thou 
hast taken interest and increase, and thou hast 
greedily gained of thy neighbors by oppression and 
hast forgotten me saith the Lord Jehovah." 

Matthew 25:26-27: "But his lord answered and 
said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou 
knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather 
where I did not scatter; thou oughtest therefore to 
have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming 
I should have received back mine own with interest." 



92 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

Luke 19 : 22, 23 : "He saith unto him, Out of thine 
own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. 
Thou knewest that I am an austere man taking up 
that I laid not down and reaping that I did not sow; 
then wherefore gavest thou not my money into the 
bank, and I at my coming should have required it 
with usury." 

Luke 16: 13-15: ''No servant can serve two mas- 
ters: for either he will hate the one, and love the 
other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the 
other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the 
Pharisees w^ho were lovers of money heard all these 
things and they scoffed at him. And he said unto 
them_, Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight 
of men but God knoweth your hearts : for that which 
is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight 
of God." 

It is not easy to understand how an honest, godly 
man, who has even medium intelligence, unclouded 
by prejudice, and who has confidence in the highest 
scholarship of the age, can deny that the revealed 
Word of God, in both Testaments, condemns usury 
or interest. It is just as difificult to explain how any 
one, not glaringly inconsistent, can claim that interest 
taking is not a sin, who bows to the divine authority 
of the revealed Word and who defines sin as ''Any 
want of conformity unto or transgression of the law 
of God." 



CHAPTER XV. 
DUTY LEARNED FROM TWO SOURCES. 

In this discussion we learn our duty from two 
sources. Two authorities are recognized. One is the 
revelation of God in his written Word. The other is 
the book of nature ; this includes the ethical nature of 
man, his social relations, and the laws that govern 
material things. 

The author of the Bible is the God of nature. They 
are but two volumes from the same mind and hand. 
They must speak in harmony when both are under- 
stood. Truth found in the inspired Word cannot be 
contradicted in nature; and no facts in the works of 
God can be found in conflict with the Word He has 
spoken. A truth found in either is always consistent 
with the truths made plain in the other. 

Familiarity with one prepares us to better under- 
stand the other. The devout student of the Word 
has his mind aroused, and his susceptibility so quick- 
ened that he is able to read more clearly the lessons 
in the volumes of nature open before him. The stu- 
dent of nature, who has searched its mysteries and 
taken in its beauty and designs of infinite wisdom 
everywhere appearing, must be the more ready and 
competent to appreciate the revealed love and grace. 

The Bible is not a treatise on natural science, nor 

(93) 



94 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

does natural science teach revealed religion, yet they 
do not conflict. The special student of either may 
have perfect confidence that whatever he has found 
true in his chosen field will be found consistent with 
truth in other fields of special study. 

Chemistry, biology and all studies of nature, are 
found only to give a higher conception of the God of 
all grace. The same wisdom and power shine out in 
His works that are revealed in His Word. 

Again, the laws of God, whether fixed in nature or 
revealed in His Word, are for the highest interest of 
the physical, mental and spiritual man. Every truth 
in the Word works for the welfare of man's body and 
soul. The laws of nature, physical and psychological, 
obeyed, promote man's bodily and mental vigor. 
Strict obedience to the laws of God, as revealed in 
both Word and nature, produces the completest 
physical and mental manhood. 

God had the highest welfare of every man at heart 
when He prepared the earth for his abode and gave 
him dominion over it. And He yearned for his de- 
liverance from a fallen estate when He gave him a 
revelation of His infinite redeeming love. The eye 
of God is upon each individual of the race, as upon 
every sparrow. He has in thought, in word and in 
works, not the favoring of one of an hundred, while 
the ninety and nine are crushed or neglected, but the 
happiness and highest good of every one of the hun- 
dred. 



Duty Learned from Tzvo Sources. 95 

The ethics of the Bible and the ethics of nature, as 
wrought out by the earnest heathen philosophers, 
mainly agree. It is an astonishment to some that 
there is so much agreement in the systems of heathen 
morals and the revealed moral law. The moral law 
is written on men's hearts, and can be read there by 
the diligent and careful student; but the consciences 
of men^ enlightened and quickened by the revealed 
Word, produce the highest ethical types the world 
knows. 

The Bible is not a work on political economy, yet 
there is nothing out of harmony with the most perfect 
political institutions. When we find political prin- 
ciples clearly revealed, we shall find the same truths 
when we study the most orderly relations of men in 
their social organization. 

The Bible is not a work on economics, yet it ad- 
vances no economic principles that work a hardness or 
injustice to any. When we find economic principles 
clearly stated, we shall surely find the same truths 
confirmed in a careful study of the nature of things. 

As the written Word forbids usury or interest, it 
can be presumed that the nature of things and man's 
highest good also forbids it ; that it is not an arbitrary 
prohibition, but is given in love because it is in its 
very nature a ruinous evil. As we find a positive pro- 
hibition of taking usury or interest in the old dispen- 
sation and the confirmation of it in the new, both by 



96 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

the words of the Master and the understanding and 
practice of the disciples and fathers^ we may confi- 
dently expect that it will be confirmed by a correct 
and careful study of ethics and of the relation of man 
to things. 

We may learn duty from either or both sources. To 
some men the Bible comes with the greatest clearness 
and the utmost force of authority. Others find in 
nature their highest conception of the Infinite, and 
their best directions for a correct life. If usury or 
interest is found to be a sin from the Word, there is 
no need for those to enter into the economic proof 
who have no taste for this character of study or rea- 
soning. If it is found to be "malum per se" from the 
nature of things, even those who reject the divine 
revelation must array themselves against it. If it is 
shown to be evil by both revelation and economic law, 
then all peoples, Christian and heathen, should com- 
bine against it. 



CHAPTER XVL 
RIGHTS OF MAN OVER THINGS. 

Man was the last and the crowning work of the 
Creator. God made man in his own image and gave 
him dominion over all creatures. 

''For thou hast made him a little lower than the 
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. 

"Thou madest him to have dominion over the 
works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under 
his feet : 

"All the sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the 
field; 

"The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and 
whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." 

This high position is in entire harmony with man's 
innate consciousness of his superior powers, and of 
his nobler spiritual nature, and of his rightful domin- 
ion over all the other material creations. Man is a 
person, a thinking intelligent being, and is conscious 
of. his personality, and from his lofty height he calls 
all else the lower and the inferior creatures. Wher- 
ever man is found over the whole earth, of whatever 
faith or grade of civilization, he claims this universal 
dominion. 

Man was commanded to subdue the earth and 

bring it into subjection as his servant and he is con- 

97 



98 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

scious of his right to use all things to promote his 
comfort, convenience and welfare. Anything he can 
make of service to himself he has a right to appro- 
priate. 

A tree is a thing which he may prepare for his 
own purposes, for fuel, for tools, or for a dwelHng, as 
he pleases. 

Isaiah ridiculed the idolater in his time, who made 
an idol of wood and worshiped it, while with another 
part of the same tree he built a fire and warmed him- 
self. A part he served and a part served him. The 
whole tree was subject to him; in itself it had no 
rights. 

Rights belong to persons, and not to things, and 
personality cannot be transferred to a thing. If there 
is no personal owner the question of rights is never 
raised. The tree, or any thing whatever, has no 
rights in the matter. Rights belong to the owner, 
the person, not to the thing he owns. 

The game in the mountain forests and the fish in 
the rivers are things with no owner and whosoever 
will may take and use them. 

Land is a thing, and any person may make it into a 
farm or garden and build upon it his home. The land 
has no rights and makes no protest. The whole 
earth is subject to man and is to be subdued by him. 
If no owner appears his rights are not disputed. Our 
fathers found an unowned continent, with all its rich 
resources of soil and forests and mines. It was to 



Rights of Man Over Things. 99 

them free, and with the labor of a few generations 
they transformed it into farms and plantations and 
built it over with magnificent cities. 

Even that which formerly was the property of 
another has no rights. The deserted hunter's hut in 
the mountains can be appropriated. The abandoned 
farm does not resist a new tenant. A derelict vessel, 
still afloat but driven before the winds, whose officers, 
crew and owners are at the bottom of the sea, can be 
appropriated, for there is no one to dispute the claim. 

Even force or labor in the abstract is but a thing 
and has no rights. The wind is unowned and any one 
who will may harness it to do his work. The electric 
forces of nature are unowned, whoever will may 
gather and direct them to do his purpose. The water- 
fall may be made to do man's work and will not resist. 
The animals have no rights against man. The 
broncho, horse, ox, mule, or animal of any kind, may 
be turned to man's service. All the forces of nature 
were made for man. They have no rights to be 
regarded, when his interests can be served. 

It is man's high privilege to stand above all things, 
to call them to his feet and to compel their service. 
It is the reversion of the order for him to take the 
subordinate place and serve the inferior creation. 
Things subdued, such as wealth secured, is to minister 
to his highest good and to promote his noblest man- 
hood. The order is reversed when this wealth com- 
mands his service and sacrifice. The^ miser both 

L.of C, 



100 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

reverses the divine order and violates common sense 
by giving the love and service of his shriveling soul 
to a thing. 

The usurer and the borrower on usury, both, 
reverse the true order by assuming that a thing can 
claim man's service. Both grant that a thing has 
rights to be respected. The usurer takes the service 
as due to the thing he owns. It is his property that is 
exalted, and for which he claims the service must be 
rendered, and if the borrower will think closely, he 
will find that in paying usury he is serving a thing. 

A man reverses the divine order and degrades him- 
self, and becomes a gross idolater, when he serves 
things unowned instead of commanding their service, 
"stocks and stones." He reverses the true order when 
he becomes a miser and serves that which is his own, 
"which his own fingers have made," instead of com- 
pelling it to serve him. He is not less degraded when 
he exalts over himself a thing owned by another and 
serves it. The ownership of another does not change 
the nature of the thing. One can serve his neighbor's 
idol as truly as he can his own. 

There is nothing above man but God. His fellow 
man is by his side, his equal, and all other material 
creations are beneath his feet, and he is not to permit 
his fellow man to lift up the inferior thing and place 
it above him. If he does he must step down from the 
pinnacle on which he was placed by his God and 
which his own consciousness demands he shall occupy. 



Rights of Man Over Things. 101 

"Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth 
therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him 
that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself 
against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should 
lift up itself, as if it were no wood." Isaiah 10 : 15. 

If he serves the borrowed ax and saw for the claim 
that the ax and saw have against him, he admits his 
debt to things and Isaiah's ridicule of an idolater can 
be turned against him and he steps down from the 
position of conscious inborn dignified lordship and be- 
comes a servant of the inferior things. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
EQUAL RIGHTS OF MEN. 

All men have sacred rights that must be regarded. 
That these rights are equal is so familiar and stale an 
expression that it hardly need be spoken. "All men 
are created equal," each having rights, that are in- 
alienable, and each having the right to resist the en- 
croachment on his rights by another. To protect 
these rights governments are instituted. 

The vital energy of a man is his own and his right 
to it must be regarded. Since the abolition of chattel 
slavery this has been indefeasible except for crime. 

He has a right to his own vital energy and to all 
that his own vital force produces. He has a right to 
his property inherited, earned, or however secured, 
except by fraud. He has no claim against the vital 
energy of his fellow man, nor has he any claim what- 
ever against the property of another. 

The working man needs capital. His vital energy 
must waste unless there is material upon which it 
may be expended. There must be the tree, land or 
material in some form, upon which he can work. But 
give him the world raw and unsubdued and he can 
transform it again as he has. He can build again 
everything on land and sea, the farms, towns, and 
cities, and the floating palaces. He can again dig 

102 



Equal Rights of Men. 103 

out the mines and refine the silver and gold, mould the 
clay, smelt the ore and shape the iron. His needs 
and his power, however, give him no claim to the 
property of another. 

The man of property is dependent upon the laborer. 
He may be the owner of farms, forests and mines, 
of horses, flocks and herds, of railroads and oil wells, 
yet these will not minister to him nor serve him with- 
out the laborer. His coffers may be filled with gold, 
and his barns bursting with grain and his stalls filled 
with fatlings, yet all this wealth is useless and lost, 
unless touched with the vital energy of an intelligent 
laborer. But his dependence and losses give him no 
right to the labor of another. 

He has no right, no just claim, to the services of 
another man, his equal. All his wealth cannot confer 
the right. Wealth is but a thing, in itself without 
rights, and can therefore add nothing to the rights 
of its owner. 

He may however use his wealth to command ser- 
vice by might, but not by right. A club is but a thing 
having no will and no rights, yet in the hands of a 
savage it adds greatly to his power and may be used 
by him to oppress another of his tribe. A ruflian 
with his gun meeting a defenseless man may so com- 
mand him, that he is ready for the most abject obedi- 
ence. An armed highwayman may compel a brave 
man "to stand and deliver." So a man may use his 



104 Scripturalj Ethical and Econowtic View of Usury. 

property to secure the service of another but it gives 
him no right to that service. 

The usurer, who has himself no rights against his 
fellows, uses a thing, his property, as an instrument or 
weapon to command service. 

He may place his hand upon every material thing 
another must have, and withhold it^ and the other is 
shut up and compelled, he has no alternative. He 
must yield to the demands or suffer. Many men are 
driven to the last extremity before they will borrow. 

But if the borrower is very willing and urgent for 
the loan, this does not changx the nature of the act. 
The game may be shot upon the wing as it is en- 
deavoring to escape, or it may be snared in a trap 
by a tempting bait. The wild broncho may be cap- 
tured in chase, or beguiled into the corral. 

The voluntary sacrifice of others to the usurer 
does not make his gains just. The foolish ones are 
now willing to invest in lottery tickets, yet that does 
not make the lottery lawful. Slot machines are being 
put out of the cities, because so many are ready to 
part with their nickels. If there were none ensnared 
by them, they could stand harmless. 

The borrower may be greatly elated with the hope 
of gain, but the injustice is the same, whether the 
services be secured by compelling force, or by guile, 
or by the folly of the victim. 

If we admit the supremacy of man over the material 
creation, all subordinate to him, and no right to be, 



Equal Rights of Men. 105 

except to serve him, and also admit the equal rights 
of all men, there is no escape from the conclusion 
that the usurer can have no rightful claims to any por- 
tion of the labor of the borrower, without surrender- 
ing to him some portion of his property as compen- 
sation for the services received. He must have less 
property when the service is rendered and the bor- 
rower must have more property if the rights of both 
are regarded. 

A false im.pression prevails^ that the lender in some 
way gives the loan to the borrower; that the bor- 
rower becomes somewhat the owner of the property. 
The borrower is encouraged in this illusion and it 
becomes a plausible basis for the claim upon his ser- 
vices. 

When a loan is made to a bank it is called a 
"deposit" and rightly, for it is only placed in the 
banker's hands and does not in any part become his. 
This is true of any amount, great or small, whether 
the deposit draws interest or not. The lender never 
loses his sense of ownership of the whole amount, nor 
does the banker encourage the fiction that he has 
become part owner. 

Every loan is but a ''deposit." The ownership of 
no part passes to the borrower. It is seldom that 
the loan or ''deposit" is not safer in the keeping of 
the borrower than in the hands of the owner himself, 
when secured by mortgages or personal sureties. 
The usurer gains the earnings of the borrower but 



106 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

parts with no property. He receives the service but 
gives nothing. 

Two usurers, A and B, are neighbors. A has a 
garden he wishes dug. He has an ax but no hoe. 
B has wood that he wishes cut. He has a hoe but no 
ax. The laborer appears and wishes to do their work. 
Usurer A agrees to lend him his ax to cut B's wood 
on the condition that he shall return it unimpaired 
and work his garden for its use. 

He cuts the wood, but has no hoe to dig A's garden 
for the use of the ax. Usurer B now lends the laborer 
his hoe to dig the garden, but takes the cutting of 
the wood for the use of the hoe. The confused bor- 
rower knows he is defrauded of his work, though each 
seems to have a plausible claim upon him. 

A does not give the hoe to the laborer. He retains 
the full ownership but deposits it in the workman's 
hands to be returned unimpaired. B does not give 
away his ax, he only places it in the laborer's hands 
also to be returned unimpaired. The full hoe and 
full ax is returned and they have taken the services 
without compensation. 

The result is just the same as if A and B had traded 
tools and A had given the laborer a hoe to dig the 
garden, "the tool and the material with which to 
work," and B had given him an ax to cut his wood, 
"the tool and the material with which to work," with- 
out a pretence of a payment for his labor. 

Taking only a part of the borrower's or laborer's 



Equal Rights of Men. 107 

services does not relieve it of injustice. The nature 
of the oppression is the same, only less heinous and 
flagrant. He who took a penny belonging to another 
is a thief as truly as the man who took a pound. Petit 
larceny and grand larceny differ only in the amount 
stolen. The man who takes three per cent, of the 
labor of another wrongfully defrauds as the man who 
takes fifty per cent. The nature of the wrong is the 
same; they only differ in degree. 

It is a well known fact, however, often repeated, 
that ninety-five out of every hundred who go into 
business with borrowed capital, that is, who pay 
interest on "their material and tools," do give the 
vigor of their lives to the service of usurers and at 
the end have nothing. 

The element of time is only a figment that clouds 
the question of right and deceives the borrower. In 
order that the labor of another may be appropriated 
it is necessary to give him time to work. The laborer 
may dig in A's garden a day or all summer and he 
may chop wood for B a day or all winter. The result 
is the same. It is necessary that the borrower be 
given time to earn something before it is or can be 
appropriated. The question is, how rapidly can he 
earn, and how soon can his earnings be collected? 
Long time loans with the frequent payments of the 
earnings of the victim are the ideal conditions of the 
usurer. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A FALSE BASAL PRINCIPLE. 

That usury or interest must be held under the 
restraints of law is recognized in nearly all countries. 
It is treated as a necessary evil that cannot be 
abolished, and therefore must be controlled. Bacon 
said, "It is permitted on account of the hardness of 
men's hearts." 

The laws dififer in the various states. The rate of 
interest authorized by a particular state is not invaria- 
bly fixed, but is changed as the condition of the peo- 
ple seems to demand. 

That which determines the rate, of any particular 

people, at any particular time, is the productive ability 

of the borrower. The rate now in England is about 

three per cent. The conditions being such that the 

productive power of the borrower is very limited. In 

the United States, where the natural resources are 

not all occupied, and the avenues for successful effort 

more numerous, the average is seven per cent. In 

the western states of the United States the rates are 

higher than in the eastern, for the material resources 

lie so open and undeveloped that the productive 

power of the borrower is far greater than in the older 

eastern states. 

The basal for the rate of interest is the benefit or 
108 



A False Basal Principle. 109 

the advantage of the loan to the borrower. What 
can the borrower do or make with this capital? How 
great a benefit can he gain by it? The rate is based 
on the earnings of the borrower. 

The transfer from R. R. station to R. R. station 
across this city is twenty-five cents. That I may 
make my train and meet my appointment, that 
prompt and rapid transfer is of greater value to me^ 
but that does not give the hackman the right to an 
increased charge. 

The fare to the distant city is ten dollars, but to 
me, with important business waiting and suffering, it 
is worth an hundred. The conductor does not ask me 
what my profits are to be from this trip. He collects 
the same fare of all for the same service, whatever 
their interests may be in the passage. 

The letter which is freighted with a proposition that 
affects my future Hfe is two cents. Because of great 
value to me the postal service is no more than a 
letter of idle gossip. 

Railroad freight rates are at times arbitrarily fixed 
on the basis of the benefit to the patron. The rates 
of freight from a coal mine are sometimes made by a 
railroad on the basis of the profits of operating the 
mine. The rates to a quartz mine in the mountains 
are often so regulated. A contractor, dependent on 
a transportation company, must often share his 
profits. Such rates are regarded as unjust and op- 
pressive and efforts are made to correct the evil by 
law. 



110 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

A is crossing the city and can without incon- 
venience carry a note to a party for B. That accom- 
modation without sacrifice or inconvenience on the 
part of A is no basis for a charge upon B, though the 
deHvery of the message was of value to B, but if A 
discovers that in deHvering th ,t note he can make it 
a matter of business gain to himself, that would not 
justify B in claiming a part of the profits A secured 
for himself. While A served his own business he 
also favored B. It would be unreasonable and unjust 
for B to forget the favor and make a charge against 
A, because in the delivery of the note A managed to 
gain a profit. 

Two farmers are without barns. It will require the 
labor of a number of years to secure the requisite 
amount of lumber and other material to enable them 
to erect their barns. One of the farmers undertakes 
to shelter and protect from decay the lumber of both, 
until the requisite amount can be secured. This is a 
real favor to the other and is accepted readily. He 
even offers to pay him for the care and liability. But 
he discovers afterward that his neighbor, by wise, 
careful and skillful piling, has made from this lumber 
a shelter for his stock and grain. That he has so 
managed as to gain for himself a benefit. Then^ 
with the false principle of usury he makes a charge for 
the keeping of the very thing for which he was will- 
ing to pay a price. 



A False Basal Principle. Ill 

A gentleman not wanting his coach for a time, but 
wishing it to be kept in perfect repair, and his team 
fed and exercised, to be kept sleek and strong, leaves 
it in his coachman's care. The coachman agrees 
to keep from decay, and to replace should one die, 
and at the end of the term, return the coach in per- 
fect condition, no mar or wear, and the team sleek 
and strong from good care, feed and daily exercise. 
But the coachman discovers that in the daily exercise 
of the team he can carry a party of business men to 
and from their offices, and secure for himself a gain. 
He, at the end of the term, returns the carriage and 
equipage complete as he received it. The owner has 
had his property perfectly cared for during the term 
he could not use it. But the owner learning of the 
benefit to the keeper, which would not have been 
possible without his equipage, demands a portion 
of the benefit which cost him nothing, nor in the 
least diminished his property. 

A gentleman has a warm, rich and beautiful robe, 
but is about to travel a number of years among the 
countries of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, 
where he will not need it, and afterward visit Siberia, 
where he will need and use it. Another undertakes 
to relieve him of all care of it during these years and 
deliver it to the Siberian home ready for his use. He 
protects it from the moths in summer, and guards it 
against all touch or taint, and delivers it in the perfect 
condition in which it was received. In justice he 



112 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

deserves a reward from the owner, and if he received 
no benefit, would receive it, but it is found that he 
needed it for his comfort by the way, and that without 
it he should have perished. Then the owner demands 
a reward for the benefit the carrier received. The 
owner did no service. He received a positive benefit, 
but the porter, who carried the burden all the way, 
must pay interest or rental because he was kept from 
perishing by it. 

The surprise or discovery feature is introduced into 
the above illustrations to emphasize the false basis 
upon which the rates of interest rest. In the actual 
practice of usury the lender may have full information 
as to the use of the loan and its advantages to the 
borrower. If we eliminate this feature the basis still 
remains untenable. By no tortion of ethics can I 
demand that he, who does me a favor, shall pay me 
for the privilege. 

A man has one thousand dollars of money he is 
not using. He gives it to another to keep or place 
in a drawer in his vault. To care for this and be 
responsible for it, a commission is allowed, for it is no 
benefit to the keeper. Even an amount is asked for 
the drawer in the vault, without responsibility. To 
care for this a term of years is deserving of a reward. 
But now keeping the property equally safe, and re- 
turning every dollar when the owner calls fof it, is 
not satisfactory to the usurer. If this money has 
in any way proved a benefit to the keeper, through 



A False Basal Principle. 113 

his wisdom and energy and skill, he demands an 
increase. What is this loan worth to you? is the 
question of the usurer to the borrower. 

The basis of legal interest rates is the amount of 
benefit the borrower gains by the loan. If his oppor- 
tunities in a state are favorable, and he may by dili- 
gence make a large gain, the rates are high. If in 
another state his opportunites are so limited that, 
strive as he may, he can make little gain, the legal 
rates will be low. 

The basis is so absurd that many have urged the 
repeal of all laws regulating the rates of interest. 
"Why should the laws presume to level the rates for a 
whole state? The possibilities and opportunities of 
gain are infinitely varied. Every borrower knows 
his own conditions and the amount of advantage the 
loan is to him and he should be permitted to pay for 
money whatever he is willing to pay." 

One writer thus expresses it, "No man of ripe years 
and of sound mind, acting freely, and with his eyes 
open, ought to be hindered, with a view to his advan- 
tage, from making such bargains in the way of 
obtaining money, as he thinks fit; nor anybody 
hindered from supplying him upon any terms he 
thinks proper to accede to." 

Jeremy Bentham is often quoted to prove the ab- 
surdity of all laws regulating the rates of interest, and 
yet all his elaborate arguments are based on this 
false principle. 



114 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

If usury is wrong only when the borrower can make 
no profit, and is right whenever the borrower can 
make a gain by it^ and the rate of interest is to be 
measured by that gain, then all laws are illogical that 
limit the rate, and may be classed among those 
restraining trade. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
THE TRUE ETHICAL PRINCIPLE. 

The true ethical principle that should govern the 
relation between the owner of property and the per- 
son holding that property as a loan, does not differ 
from the principle that is recognized as prevailing in 
all the other relations of life. The party to whom the 
service is rendered is under obligation. The party 
served is the one who must pay for the service. The 
party served must pay in proportion to the amount of 
service rendered him. If that service is great, then 
the payment must be large. If the service is slight, 
then the payment is small, and when there is no 
service then no payment can be claimed. 

This principle is recognized in all worthy and up- 
right transactions. It is the service rendered that is 
rewarded in a court of justice. An employe recovers 
his wages from his employer for his services rendered. 
The condition of the employer's business does not 
enter into the count. It may have been unprofitable 
or a great success but that cannot affect the claim 
either way. 

A physician charges for the services given a 

patient. The recovery or death of the patient can 

neither increase nor diminish them. 

In service we always surrender something of our- 

U5 



116 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

selves or of our own, and each knows the sacrifice or 
effort he has made ; he cannot know the value of this 
to the other, and he need not know. Full compen- 
sation is due from the party served but no compen- 
sation is due when no service is given nor property 
surrendered. 

The usurer's whole claim is for the service of his 
property. But he does not surrender a particle of 
his w^ealth. He does not become poorer in making 
his loan. He holds all his wealth as fully as before, 
whether it be a loan of money or grains or tools. 
There has been no outgo of property for which, in 
any other relation, he could claim a reward or com- 
pensation from his fellow. He simply deposits his 
property with his fellow and takes security for its 
safe keeping. It must be preserved perfectly and 
restored fully. 

When we consider the true principle, .that compen- 
sation is due always for services rendered, the obliga- 
tion is upon the lender for the care and preservation 
of his property. The borrower in any and every case 
gives a real and valuable service in preservation and 
restoration at the end of the term, while the lender 
renders no personal service nor does he part with a 
particle of his wealth. 

There is always a service rendered in caring for and 
preserving the property of another. It may be very 
great or it may be very small. It may be so great 



The True Ethical Principle. 117 

that no one would undertake it though the property 
should be freely given him. 

In 1800 the ''Faithful Steward" was wrecked in 
Delaware bay near the shore. It had on board a 
large number of passengers, emigrants, who nearly 
all perished. Few lives were saved and all the 
property was lost. One young man, of the kin of the 
writer, swam ashore through the breakers. Before 
he left the vessel an old man offered him a stocking 
full of gold if he cared to try and save it. Though 
young and vigorous he would not undertake to try 
to save it for it. This was an extreme case of risk 
and danger. 

In another extreme case the service may be very 
small, reduced to the minimum, for instance, caring 
for the gold of another by locking it up in a fire and 
burglar-proof safe. For this simple service a com- 
paratively small charge is made. But caring for the 
property of another is always some service that earns 
a reward great or small. 

The nature of the service is not changed and the 
principle still holds when the deposit is made with a 
person who gives ample pledges for its full return; 
the principle still holds when the deposit is made in 
a farm and secured there by mortgage, making it safer 
than in the iron vault. 

The true ethical principle, equity between man and 
man, requires that the holder of the property of 
another shall be compensated by the owner of the 



118 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

property for his services in caring for and preserving 
it. The amount of compensation depends on the 
difficult or favorable conditions attending its care. 
These conditions greatly vary, perhaps in no two 
cases are exactly alike, and so there can be no fixed 
price or rate at which one will receive and care for the 
property of another. The extreme limit of liberality 
permitted is that he may care for the property of 
another for nothing. He is not permitted to pay a 
price for the privilege. The revealed divine law, true 
ethics and equity and duty of self preservation forbid 
him. Perfect preservation of any amount, large or 
small, for any time, long or short, whatever the inci- 
dental advantages to the borrower, is the highest 
compensation a borrower is permitted to give for any 
loan. The demand for more than this by the owner 
is to be resisted as unjust and oppressive. 

An express company receives a package of money 
for which it receipts and becomes responsible and 
agrees to deliver to the owner at some distant point. 
For this service it receives compensation in accord- 
ance with the amount of service. If the conditions 
are dangerous and the distance great the charge is 
large. If the conditions are very favorable and safe 
the charges are small. 

If the amount of service is reduced to the mini- 
mum, in rare cases, no charge may be made. But 
that a price should be paid for the privilege of car- 
ing for and conveying it, is inconsistent with the 



The True Ethical Principle. 119 

management of an honest business. The purpose 
would be either to rob the owner of his wealth or to 
rob the employes of their services. 

An insurance company undertakes to protect a 
property for a term of years, to a distant date. A 
rate is given for protection from a single element, as 
fire. If all destructive agents are included the rate is 
higher. The rate is higher for a long than a short 
period. All the business world recognize the value of 
this service and nearly every kind of property may 
now be insured. The premium is cheerfully paid by 
the owner of the property for the service rendered 
him. It is a real and valuable service to have his prop- 
erty protected, preserved, or restored, so that it can- 
not be lost before the distant date. It is conceivable 
that a property might be so indestructible that the 
risk would be practically nothing and a policy might 
be issued without a premium, but that a price should 
be paid for the privilege of protecting any property is 
utterly inconsistent with rational insurance. 

Now usury presumes to reverse this ethical order 
and requires that the insurance company shall pay 
the owner of the property for the privilege of protect- 
ing it. Under usury the property given into the 
care of another, and called a loan, must be perfectly 
protected and preserved by the borrower, restored if 
lost, and returned in full to the owner at the agreed 
distant date, and a price paid for the privilege of per- 
forming the service. 



120 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

The true ethical principle and equity in the rela- 
tions between the owner of a property and the one 
who holds, protects and preserves it, require that 
the owner shall render to the holder a just compen- 
sation. This will vary in different conditions, it may 
be very small^ it may in rare cases be entirely elimi- 
nated; but they also utterly forbid that the party 
rendering the service shall pay for the privilege of 
serving. 

One may submit to an injustice in order to gain an 
advantage. He can do better for himself by sub- 
mitting than by resisting. His employer may be 
hard and oppressive but this is the best job he can 
get and he holds on, but that does not justify the 
oppressions of the employer up to the breaking 
point. It may be to the advantage of a borrower to 
submit to the exactions of usury, that is, he may gain 
more wealth by borrowing upon interest than not, 
but that does not relieve usury of its oppression up 
to the breaking point when it can no longer be 
endured. There is no better ethical basis for low 
interest than high interest. Low rates of interest are 
oppressions that may be suffered or endured for a 
possible gain, but high rates are intolerable. The 
principle is the same whatever the rate of interest, 
whether it be low or high. They only differ in the 
degrees of their severity. 



CHAPTER XX. 

WEALTH IS BARREN. 

That wealth can produce wealth is the assumption 
of Shylock. 

Shylock — "When Jacob grazed his Uncle Laban's sheep — 
This Jacob from our holy Abraham was 
The third possessor; ay, he was the third." 

Antonio — "And what of him? Did he take interest?" 

Shylock — "No, not take interest; not as you would say, 

Directly interest. Mark what Jacob did." * * * 

Antonio — "This was a venture, sir, that Jacob served for; 
A thing not in his power to bring to pass — 
But swayed and fashioned by the hand of Heaven. 
Was this inserted to make interest goodi? 
Or is your gold and silver, ewes and rams?" 

Shylock — "I can not tell; I make them breed as fast." 

— Merchant of Venice. 

It is only intelligent energy that can produce 
wealth. Even the natural resources must be sub- 
dued and shaped by intelligent energy to be of ser- 
vice to man. Trees do not betake themselves into 
the form of houses. Land does not transform itself 
into farms and gardens. Coal does not come to our 
fires without hands. Ore is not iron, nor is clay pot- 
tery. They must be carefully manipulated by the 
intelligent laborer. 

Nothing man can make has the power of self pro- 
pagation. All wealth is as barren as silver and gold^ 

though Shylock claimed he could make them breed 

121 



122 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Vie-w of Usury. 

like ewes and rams. Life alone is productive, and the 
secrets of life man has not touched. 

A tree or animal grows by the life that is in it, but 
the accretions of wealth are from the efforts of intelli- 
gent energy outside of itself. Wealth is an effect, a 
result. The vital energy of a person, of "a willing 
intelligent being" produces wealth, but it does not fol- 
low that it has the qualities of its cause. It has no 
intelligence, nor has it self-determining power, nor is 
it vital^ nor has it energy, it has not in itself the force 
to overcome its inertia, the energy must be applied. 
It has no power to increase or grow. A fortune is 
built, as a building is built, brick after brick is added 
by intelligent hands. 

All wealth must have the living hands applied to 
cause it to increase even the smallest amount. There 
is no such thing as ''productive" capital. It is so 
called when it is used to gather and appropriate the 
earnings of others, but wealth in none of its forms 
has the quality or power of producing. 

Money, the most familiar form, is barren. A bag 
of dollars stored for ages will not have increased a 
single coin. No one holds or handles money on the 
assumption that it will increase in his hands. Money 
is a care, and the broker who holds or handles it 
relies for his compensation, not on the increase of 
the dollars in his hands, but on the increase from some 
producer to whom he lends it. If there is no bor- 



Wealth is Barren. 123 

rower he takes a direct commission from the amoimt 
itself, as trustee or administrator or custodian. 

Money is readily exchanged for any other property. 
Money has a number of functions but in exchange it 
is a medium by which the value of articles is con- 
veyed. It takes the place of the bags which conveyed 
the wheat, of the crates which contained the potatoes, 
of the baskets which carried the peaches, and the 
wrapping which held the cotton or the wool. 

Col. Irish, who was chief of the Bureau of Engrav- 
ing and Printing at Washington, when he died, and 
under whose administration the present building was 
erected, at one time sent to the wife of the writer a 
ten dollar bill, wrapped up so that it looked like a 
picture, cabinet size ; this was accompanied by a note, 
to be opened first. In this note he said he took 
pleasure in sending her an excellent likeness of our 
late lamented president, which he would be pleased 
to have her accept. If she should prefer it in some 
other form, it was a peculiarity of this likeness that 
it would change instantly at the will of the holder 
into any form desired; that this was the peculiarity 
that troubled him, as he had been unable to decide 
what would please her best, and had finally decided to 
send it in this form, and let her change it into any 
other she might like better. 

Money is a peculiar medium which will hold and 
carry the value of anything. You pour in your wheat 
and take it to the merchant, who empties your wheat 



124 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

and fills it with clothes, he carries it to the dealer in 
any article needed and the vessel is instantly emptied 
and refilled. 

The values of the products of laborers in the vari- 
ous occupations of life or the products of the various 
climates are thus readily exchanged by money, but 
the gain is not in the money. The art in trade is to 
study and know the products and needs of the 
laborers of one class or country, and the varied pro- 
ducts and needs of the producers of another class or 
local community. The skill in trade is in supplying 
the needs of one from the products of the other. 

The profit in trade is the gain from securing for an 
article a greater portion of the product of those whose 
needs are supplied, than was given to those who 
produced it. The harvester cost the manufacturer 
twenty days' work. The farmer, who needs and pur- 
chases it, pays forty days' work for it. The farmer 
may produce one hundred bushels of wheat with 
twenty-five days' work, but the mechanics in the 
city, who need it for bread, may give twice that 
amount of labor for that quantity of wheat. There 
is a wide field for skill and profit in trade, when the 
products and needs of all classes and all lands are 
considered. But money does not add to wealth in 
trade. There is nothing produced by it in trade. It 
is but the tool by which values are conveyed, and no 
more productive than baskets or crates or sacks. 
Intelligent energy produces all the profits that are 
secured by trading. 



Wealth is Barren. 125 

Modern apologists for usury, knowing that money 
is unproductive itself, call it a tool for production, and 
as it can be readily transformed into any tool, they 
try to avoid the logical conclusion that the taking of 
interest on money is unjust and oppressive to the 
producer. 

But no tool is productive. All tools are but the 
reaching out of man for the better control and 
mastery of material things. 

The tool is but dead matter; the productive efHci- 
ency is in the vital energy of the intelligent laborer. 
The most complicated and ingenious tool ever made 
is useless without the operator. It is as helpless as 
the wire without the electric current; as helpless as 
the body without its life, for the body is but man's 
tool, preserved^ and kept efficient, and made produc- 
tive, by the living energy alone. 

Tools are but the reaching out of the vital energy 
beyond the body. Tools are but the means, invented 
and constructed, by which the man can overcome his 
physical limitations and accomplish wonders, the 
impossible to a creature wanting in his intelligence. 

These glasses enable dim eyes to see clearly. There 
is no ability in the glasses to see ; they would be of no 
use on blind eyes. I see, these spectacles cannot see. 
Enlarge and so place these lenses that I can see 
bacteria, or the mountains of the moon, yet this 
microscope or this telescope has no more life nor sight 
than this single lens, I, with it, see the minute 



126 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

creation or examine the distant planet. It is but the 
extension of my eye. 

This pen and paper and this book are but the 
means by which I reach and reason with my fellow- 
men. They are but my tools to convey my thought. 
I am reasoning with you, not this paper and ink. 

My hand is the natural tool with which I labor. I 
may work in the garden and plant the seed and 
destroy the weeds with my hand alone, and there is 
no dispute but that I do the work. I take a small 
weeder in my hand and greatly increase my efficiency. 
I take a hoe and reach out further and greatly add 
to my efficiency. I am the efficient agent. There is 
no power in the weeder or the hoe. I take my plow, 
as my tool, and I tear up the soil and prepare it for 
my harvest. I take the complicated harvester and 
gather it into my barn. In every part of that process 
the tool is but the reaching out of my energy beyond 
my body. There is no place where that tool becomes 
vitalized and productive, 

I am a porter, I carry packages in my hands. To 
increase my efficiency I build me a cart, and smooth 
a roadway^ by which I am able to carry more and 
heavier packages with ease. I construct a roadway 
across the continent, and with the power which I 
employ I carry the commerce of the nation. I build 
ships and direct them from continent to continent 
and handle the commerce of the world. Now there 
is no place from this simple carriage in the hand, to 



Wealth is Barren. 127 

the complicated and stupendous system of transporta- 
tion, where the tool is not wholly dependent on the 
vital intelligent energy. 

When the vital principle leaves this body, then 
hands, eyes and the whole body is helpless. With- 
draw the vital energy from these means by which 
man extends his power beyond the body, and all the 
implements of agriculture will not produce a harvest, 
and the wheels of commerce on land and sea would 
instantly stop. 

There is no place in the most complicated machine 
where it begins to produce. The machine may show 
the greatest ingenuity in its invention and the perfec- 
tion of skill in its construction, and the intelligence 
necessary to its operation may be reduced to the 
minimum, yet no where and at no time can it pro- 
duce of itself. 

When a criminal is arraigned in court the responsi- 
bility is placed upon the person, the intelligent 
energy, always. It matters not by what tools the 
burglary or other criminal act was committed. The 
man who handled the tools is held accountable for 
the results. His tools may show the greatest ingenu- 
ity and the highest skill in their construction but they 
do not share his guilt. He is the efficient and respon- 
sible cause. If this were not so justice could be so 
perverted that the preservation of the order and the 
security of society would be impossible. 

Every tool is itself produced, and its maker must be 



128 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

rewarded or paid once, but there the claim for the 
tool ends. The laborer who constructs the machine 
cannot demand repayment over and over. The skilled 
mechanic who produced this pair of lenses must be 
paid, but he has no claim for second payment. To 
secure repayment he must make another pair. The 
maker of this pen and this paper must be paid, but 
that ends his claim. The maker of the hoe or cart 
or engine must have the reward he has earned, but 
can prefer no second claim. 

There is no question when the laborer makes and 
owns his own tool. The labor of constructing the 
tool must be rewarded as well as the laborer in its 
operation. 

When the tools are complicated and require the 
skill of man}^, the makers of the machine are usually 
different persons from the laborers who operate it. 
In this case the payment of all must come from the 
finished product. Those who constructed the 
machine and those who operate it must be paid by 
the consumers. 

If the shoe plant is built and operated, then from 
the shoes produced must come the payment for all. 
The workmen who built the plant and the engines 
and machinery for the manufacture of the different 
parts of the shoe, must be paid by the consumer of 
shoes. The workmen who built the plant must be 
as fully compensated as those who operate it, but 
being compensated, they have no claim for recom- 



Wealth is Barren. 129 

pensation for the same work. To be paid again they 
must build a new plant. The operators must be 
compensated for every shoe they make, but they can 
not reclaim payment over and over again. To re- 
ceive more pay they must make more shoes. 

Both classes of laborers have a right to full com- 
pensation for all the labor performed. Neither party 
has a right to demand a second payment for the same 
labor. 

It would be manifestly as unjust for the construc- 
tors of the plant to compel the operators to pay them 
over and over again, as it would be for the operators 
of the machine, having supplied the community with 
shoes, to demand payment over and over without 
making another shoe. The shoes will wear out, so 
will the machines. It is as unreasonable for the first 
class of laborers to compel the operators of their 
machinery to keep the same in repair, as for the 
operators to compel their customers to keep their 
shoes in perfect condition. For the first laborers to 
receive a new payment they must build a new plant, 
and for the operators to receive a new payment they 
must make new shoes. 

The confusion of ideas comes in when there inter- 
venes a third party between these two classes of 
laborers. This third party meets the demands of the 
class of laborers who build the plant and machines, 
from hoarded wealth, and then exacts payment from 
those who operate it. This is then called productive 



130 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

capital, but it is no more productive than the money 
in the bank vault. The producing, so called, is but 
the exacting of a part of that which the operators 
produce. It is the exacting of payment that never 
pays. The operators are compelled to be forever 
buying, yet the plant is never bought. The capitalist 
is forever selling, yet the plant is never sold. 

Usually, the usurer is a fotirth party that stands yet 
behind the third party, taking no risks, demanding 
complete security for his loan and also an increase 
out of the products of the operators. The third party 
assumes all care and guarantees against all losses and 
depends for his compensation on a portion of the 
product after the demands of the fourth party are 
satisfied. This third party may be an active producer. 
All that he receives may be fully earned in care, over- 
sight and management of the business of the plant. 

But the fourth party can have no claim for his 
services, he has no part in the production. The 
absurdity, the figm.ent that his capital is productive, 
is introduced to cover the evident fraud of appropriat- 
ing, without compensation, a portion of the products 
of the operators. He has no more claim to an 
increase of his capital year by year and a doubling 
in a term of years, than the laborers who built it 
have to the same plants perfect and unworn at the 
end of a term, and in addition, another plant equal 
in every respect. They built but one, they have no 
claim upon a second. For the usurer, who takes their 



Wealth is Barren. 131 

place, to double his wealth, and yet the debt be undis- 
charged, is a flagrant fraud. 

The underlying falsehood is that wealth changes 
its nature when put in the hands of a live man and 
becomes productive. It is acknowledged that wealth 
lying in the vault is barren and at the same time it 
is claimed that it produces in the hands of an intelli- 
gent agent. But it is the same dead, helpless, barren 
thing wherever it may be found and whatever form 
it may be made to take. The dollar taken from the 
vault and exchanged for a hoe does not receive this 
new quality. The hoe is as dead as the dollar. When 
this hoe is in the hands of the workman it is the same 
barren thing is was before he picked it up. These 
glasses are precisely the same when astride my nose 
as when lying on the table. It is not true that wealth 
in any form, though it be that of a useful tool, takes 
on this new quality or attribute when in the hands of 
a live man. 

A man's labor is more productive with suitable 
tools than without them. The same energy will 
secure far greater returns. If it were not so he 
would not trouble to make tools or use them. But 
to call tools productive agents and so reward them is 
to rob intelligent energy, skill and inventive genius 
of that which they alone can produce. This degrades 
the man to the level of the tool or exalts the tool to 
the height of its maker. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
WEALTH DECAYS. 

All man-made wealth is subject to inevitable decay. 
Aristotle said, ^'Labor produces all wealth," but the 
product has no sooner left the laborer's hands than it 
begins to perish. The vital energy that produced it 
must follow to preserve it from the ravages of time. 

Take the life, the vital part, from the body, and 
corruption begins. So with all that has been pro- 
duced, withdraw the vital force and ruin immediately 
follows. The vital energy must ever be present and 
active to preserve it. 

Fruits and grains and provisions of all kinds for 
human food rapidly perish. The laborer must be 
continually active, producing and preserving, or the 
race would be starving in a fortnight. Even the 
miraculously bestowed manna became corrupt in a 
night. It had to be gathered day by day. 

Flocks and herds need the shepherd's care. They 
are subject to disease and natural enemies and are 
short lived, so that however large and strong, and 
healthy the herd of cattle, or the flock of sheep, it 
would be soon scattered and lost to the owner without 
watchful care. 

Tools and instruments of production, great or 

small, if used, soon need to be renewed, or if unused 
132 



Wealth Decays. 133 

perish even sooner. Neglected they speedily decay. 
The locomotive left unattended on the track would 
soon be utterly useless from the destructive elements 
of rain and heat, frosts and sunshine. 

The palace, that floats on the ocean, would be a 
prey to barnacles, to winds and waves, to shoals and 
rocks, and would soon disappear, without the con- 
stant hand of intelligent vital energy to direct and 
preserve it. Houses untenanted and uncared for 
soon decay. Leaks unstopped, broken windows 
unrepaired, and vermin unrestrained, soon make 
them unfit for habitation. Farms and plantations go 
back speedily to weeds and wilderness when unculti- 
vated. Great cities like Babylon and Nineveh are 
soon so covered with dust that we have to dig to find 
their ruins. 

Decay is written over every form of man-made 
wealth. There is needed constantly the touch of the 
laborer for its preservation. 

Gold, silver and precious stones are the least sub- 
ject to decay. They are not, however, made, but 
found, and simply refined and polished. The inde- 
structibility of silver and gold have made them the 
money metals of the world, quite as much as their 
rarity, their beauty and malleability. In them wealth 
could be stored and moth and rust would not corrupt. 

But even gold and silver will disappear. The thief 
will break through and steal. They must be, there- 
fore, carefully guarded. The tax or levy of the 



134 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

government for its part in the protection must be 
met, so that even gold and silver must also gradually 
slip away. 

Decay is upon all wealth and the hand of the 
laborer must be ever present for its preservation. 

This law is universal. Even the Divine Creator 
must continue to uphold his creation. His sustain- 
ing hand cannot be withdrawn. He must preserve 
by his power and ever guide and direct, or disorder 
and chaos will ensue. 

Usury or interest presumes to ignore this order of 
nature and demands not only that the borrower shall 
resist this tendency of capital to decay, but shall also 
pay a price for the privilege. 

That any one should undertake to care for and 
preserve the property of another v^^ithout compensa- 
tion is unreasonable, but that any one should volun- 
tarily pay a premium for the privilege can only be 
explained by misguided judgment or a perverted 
moral sense. 

No one would be responsible for, and care for and 
pay tax upon the money of another and himself get 
from it no return. Trustees and administrators 
receive, and feel they earn, a com.mission for this 
caring for the property of others. 

When this wealth is in the form of a tool, or manu- 
facturing plant, the responsibility is greater. The 
owner asks that it be preserved perfectly. There 
must be no decline in value, from new improved 



Wealth Decays. 135 

machinery, and all accidents must be made good; if 
destroyed by fire, it must be rebuilt. To take this 
for a year or term of years, is a responsibility no one 
would feel justified in assuming in justice to himself. 
He would be using his own vital force to preserve the 
perishable property of another. 

A man has a farm, fertile and well improved, and 
well stocked. He is to be absent for a time. He 
asks as a favor that another watch it with care, pre- 
serve the stock in condition, if any die, replace them, 
and in short, so preserve that he shall have "the farm 
at his return, just as fertile, the stock just as young 
and valuable, the implements unworn and no signs 
of decay on the buildings ; if any burn, rebuild them. 
This would be a favor only the kindest and weakest 
of neighbors or friends would undertake, and what 
no man would be justified in asking of another. This 
is loaning without interest and this is the borrower, 
who pays only the principal and no increase. 

The usurer says. Care for my property and pay me 
for the opportunity. Keep it intact. Make good 
every loss and return to me an increase which you by 
your energy and effort may produce. 

The rates of interest greatly vary. The average in 
the United States is about seven per cent., by statis- 
tics of the government only recently issued. At 
seven per cent., interest paid annually or added to 
debt for ten years, the debt is doubled. 

The usurer or interest taker says. You take this 



136 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

hundred dollars and care for it for me for ten years 
and then bring me two hundred dollars. Take this 
wheat and this corn and in ten years bring me back 
just twice the amount. Take these horses and these 
sheep and cattle and care for them for ten years and 
return them just as good as they are now, and other 
horses, cattle and sheep in equal number^ which you 
have produced in these ten years. 

Take this shop with all its tools and implements 
and care for it so that in ten years you can return it to 
me in as perfect order as now, and also build me with 
your labor and energy another shop, just like it, and 
equip it in every way just as complete as this, and on 
my return give both to me. Take this farm, fertile 
as it is, with its buildings and animals and imple- 
ments, and preserve them perfectly, not a thing shall 
decay or decline in value ; make good every loss, and 
at the end of ten years return it to me and also 
another farm which you have earned during these ten 
years, of equal acreage and fertility, equally improved 
with live stock and implements. 

The usurer gains the preservation of his own per- 
ishable property, and he gains also the product of the 
vital force of his victim. 

This law of decay is a natural limitation to the 
accumulation of any producer. As decay begins at 
once, a part of the vital energy must be expended in 
the preservation of that already produced. As the 
accumulations increase, morp pn^ro-v is required for 



Wealth Decays. 137 

its preservation, and less remains for active produc- 
tion. Time does not relax his work of ruin, and the 
resisting energy must be constant. The tendency to 
decay is such that soon the energy required to pre- 
serve that already gained leaves none to produce, and 
the accumulations must cease. 

To this point the rich fool in the parable had come. 
He had abundance accumulated and the problem w^as 
to preserve it, until he could consume it. "This will 
I do, I will pull down my barns, and build greater; 
and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much 
goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, 
drink, and be merry." 

The usurer hands his goods to another to build the 
barns and keep for him, while he is free from its care ; 
and, more, he requires of his victim not only that he 
shall preserve, resisting all decay, but that he shall 
actually pay him for the privilege. 

Had the rich fool not lived in his day, when usury 
was a crime, but in this age of folly, he would have 
apportioned his goods among his foolisher neighbors 
upon interest, to keep for him, and then not only he, 
for "many years," but his posterity forever, could be 
at ease, eating, drinking, and making merry. The 
silly borrowers would supply all the needs of his 
endowed family, for the privilege of caring for the 
goods. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
THE DEBT HABIT. 

The debt habit of mind is the disposition or tend- 
ency to look to things we have not as necessary to 
our success: To yearn for other opportunities and 
other means than those we have in our hands: To 
feel helpless without them and willing to incur debt 
to secure them. The independent, self-reliant dis- 
position takes account of its own powers and oppor- 
tunities and means, and plans with these to accom- 
plish the very most. This old self-reliant, independ- 
ent spirit, that scorned debt, has largely passed away. 
To incur debt is now the common habit and has 
become respectable. 

All evil-doers encourage and stimulate the par- 
ticular fashion or habit or appetite or passion on 
which they thrive. Usury thrives on debt. If no one 
was in debt then usurers would be harmless. It is 
this debt habit that gives them the large field for their 
operations and secures to them their harvest. 

The agreement to pay interest preserves for a time 
the feeling of independence that would be wounded 
by receiving a loan as a favor. There is usually a 
feeling of joy and elation in the borrower that confi- 
dence in him is so great, and his credit is so high, that 

he can be entrusted with a loan. 
138 



The Debt Habit. 139 

By incurring a debt there seems to promise the 
opening up of opportunities that have been denied, 
and a possible field for the successful exertion of his 
pent up energies. 

The present intended use of the loan, too, seems so 
attractive and profitable, and the buoyant, hopeful 
spirit does not doubt that the loan can be easily and 
promptly repaid. 

The temptations to debt do not come to the vicious 
and idle and worthless, but to the most worthy, indus- 
trious, talented, reliable and enterprising, those who 
will be the most productive in their fields of effort. 
Its vei*y approach is flattering and therefore so hard 
to resist. 

A bright, intelligent, noble young man with high 
aims and worthy purposes yearns for an education^ 
but the opportunities seem to be denied him; but 
there is a fund at low interest at his service. 

A lively, energetic young man, with industrious 
and economical habits, is anxious to engage in busi- 
ness ; his youth, character and energy bring the loan 
to his feet. 

The young man with pure yearning for domestic life 
and a home, with a reputation that is above reproach 
and of commendable energy and thrift, has a home 
pressed upon him, to be paid for in long-time pay- 
m^ents. He can fill it with furniture ''on the install- 
ment plan." With intellectual taste, he can fill his 



140 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

library with just the books he desires "on the install- 
ment plan." Is he musical in his taste, he can fill his 
parlor with musical instruments "on the installment 
plan." His needs and tastes can all be gratified at 
once by incurring- debt. To avoid debt there must 
be a determined and unremitted effort to resist. Few 
have been able to escape. The aggregate of private 
indebtedness can not be told. 

Few manufacturing plants are free from debt. 
They are usually carrying all the load their credit 
enables them to secure. Railroads and other corpor- 
ations are under bonded debts that tax their trade 
to the utmost to sustain. 

Counties and municipalities have caught the con- 
tagious habit. Bonds are issued to build school 
houses, town halls, viaducts, water-works, and pave 
streets. 

There lies on this table a list of all the cities in this 
great land, the United States, with their number of 
inhabitants and their bonded debts. There are but 
six small cities in the long list without debt. In some 
the amount is enormous, the city debt in cases run- 
ning up to one hundred and one hundred and fifty, 
and two hundred dollars per inhabitant. That is, 
there is a city debt on each man, woman and child 
of two hundred dollars. On this amount interest 
must be paid, twelve dollars per year, one dollar per 
month for every man, woman and child. 



The Debt Habit. 141 

There lies also on the table a report of the financial 
condition of the nearest great city. It is rendered in 
a cheerful mood and declares the city's credit ''tip 
top." The indebtedness is eight milHons, but the 
assessed valuation of the city is so high that two 
million more bonds can be issued before the limit of 
indebtedness is reached as established by the general 
law. This is regarded as a most favorable showing 
and the assurance is given that all the contemplated 
public improvements can be pushed without interrup- 
tion. There is no thought of stopping until the 
extreme limit is reached. 

This habit extends to the churches and benevolent 
enterprises. There is scarcely a church that is not 
paying interest on some debt. Local societies are 
often greatly hindered in their work. A benevolent 
agency of one of the largest and richest denomina- 
tions issued a piteous appeal to their constituents for 
help, declaring that the interest on their debts 
amounted to one thousand dollars per week. 

The debt habit has seized the nations and the most 
enlightened. This is so true that debts are, in 
pleasantry, spoken of as a sign of a nation's progress. 
These aggregate billions and are rapidly increasing. 

The Chancellor of the Exchequer says the debt of 
England was reduced five hundred millions in twenty 
years. To the astonishment of all the world, the 
United States began to pay her debt, eighteen 
hundred million, in thirty years. But these stand 



142 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

alone among the nations. The national debts do not 
grow less, but are rapidly increasing. Both the 
United States and England are now increasing their 
indebtedness each year. 

The world has gone debt mad. It has become a 
great harvest field, ripe for the usurers. 

Debts may at times be unavoidable. They may at 
times be positively beneficial. There may be times 
when the system is in such a condition that it is neces- 
sary to take arsenic in small doses, but arsenic has no 
place in the menu of a healthy man. So debts may 
be necessary to those who have fallen into decay or 
have been unfortunate, but they should find no place 
in the normally healthy financial conditions of an 
individual or incorporation or nation. 

Debts make no man the richer. A man is no 
richer when he has secured a loan, than he was before. 
Paying debts makes no man poorer. He but relieves 
himself of the property of another. 

Paying a national debt destroys no wealth. If 
owed at home, it is but a transfer from one hand or 
pocket to another. 

Adjusting the world's debts, private, corporate, 
municipal, or national, the world would remain as 
rich and productive. Not a material thing would 
perish. No man would suffer the loss of any right 
or of any property, but it would be the destruction 
of the device by which the usurers appropriate to 
themselves the productions of others. 



The Debt Habit. 143 

Freed from this debt habit of mind, and the inde- 
pendent^ self-reHant disposition replaced, this 
anomalous condition would disappear; the producer 
would receive again his full earnings and the great 
army of parasites, that has grown up, and that feed 
so richly on the labors of others, would be compelled 
to turn producers or perish. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 
THE BORROWER IS SERVANT TO THE LENDER. 

Solomon's declaration that, 'The borrower is 
servant to the lender," was spoken without reference 
to usury. Loaning upon increase was not lawful in 
his day, and was condemned by him in his proverb, 
"He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his 
substance, he shall gather it for him that will have 
pity on the poor." 

A loan binds the borrower to the lender though he 
pay no increase. There comes a sense of subservi- 
ency and subordination that can not be thrown off. 

He becomes steward of another's goods, and frees 
the owner of their care, but they remain subject to 
the owner's order. The preservation of goods hinder 
any great accumulation by any single producer, but 
if he can be freed from its care, then all his energies 
can be used to continue production. Many find it 
as hard to keep property as it is to earn it. 

The hunter or fisherman takes with him his lackey 
to carry his game. If game is plentiful and the 
hunter successful, he would, otherwise, soon be com- 
pelled to discontinue his hunt from the burden of fish 
and game. But, freed from that care and burden, he 
can continue his hunt indefinitely. So, the borrower, 
even when he pays no interest, as a lackey, without 
wages, cares for the earnings of the lender, leaving 
him free to continue his earning unhindered, 

144 



The Borrower is Servant to the Lender. 145 

A valet cares for the clothes of his master until he 
calls for them. The borrower, without interest, as a 
valet, without pay, cares for the goods of the lender 
until he needs them. 

The independent spirit of the borrower is not 
immediately lost. The servile spirit and conscious 
sense of bondage may not be felt at once. Likely 
the first sensation on receiving a loan is an elation 
bordering on ecstasy. 

The poor man who is offered a loan is usually 
greatly delighted. There is hope of relief from the 
limitations and restraints that have been as a wall 
round about him. The loan seems to throw down 
these walls and give him an opportunity to secure 
greater results and achieve success. But the deHght 
is transient and the sense of greater liberty is brief. 
The prison walls are down, but the debt holds him 
like a ball and chain. He has only exchanged one 
restraint for another worse; he has leaped from the 
pan into the fire. The spirit loses its hopefulness 
and independence and becomes servile and cringing. 

Milton represents our first parents^ after their first 
sin, as intoxicated in delight, but the consciousness 
of their degredation and shame soon followed. So 
the first sensation from a loan is of relief and hope; 
the future looks bright, but the sense of subjection 
to the lender is sure to follow. 

He forfeits the free, independent, self-reliant spirit 
that scorns dependence upon any man. He only 
looks the whole world in the face, who owes no man 
a cent. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 
USURY ENSLAVES THE BORROWER. 

Timon of Athens said, ''No usurer, but has a fool 
for a slave." 

The borrower without usury loses his free and inde- 
pendent spirit and becomes cringing- and servile, but 
when interest is paid it increases the severity of the 
servile service. 

The lackey must not only care for the game taken, 
but he must add to the bag from his own hunting. 
He not only cares for the fish his master caught but 
must add to the basket from his own catching. The 
valet must not only perfectly preserve the clothes of 
his master, but must add to his wardrobe. 

The borrower of the usurer must protect and pre- 
serve every farthing in value of the property or 
goods, and must also increase the amount. 

The estimate put upon the mental condition of the 

person who will submit to such an imposition, by 

"Timon of Athens," must be admitted as fairly just, 

for a heathen. From the almost universal practice 

of usury, and the vast numbers enslaved, we must 

also admit that Solomon, the wisest man that ever 

lived, knew w4iat he was saying, when he slyly called 

us all fools in his proverb, "A wise man's heart is at 

his right hand but a fool's heart is at his left." 
146 



Usury Enslaves the Borrower. 147 

The object of the usurer in making a loan is to 
secure the service of the borrower ; it may be called a 
favor, an opportunity, an accommodation, but that 
is its purpose and its effect. It may be called capital or 
a tool for production, but the appropriation of the 
service of the borrower is the result sought and 
secured. 

To secure the service of a horse, there must be an 
outgo of wealth in its purchase price and in its harness 
and the vehicle. The service received is the return, 
the compensation for the payment made. That is 
money invested and repaid in service. The price was 
in accordance with the service the animal would be 
able to render. For more and better service a higher 
price must be paid. 

There must be an expenditure to secure the service 
of a chattel slave. The purchase price must be paid 
and the tools and material or plantation must be 
supplied before his services are available. The price 
paid is in accordance with a reasonable estimate of 
the service the slave will be able to render during life. 
The outlay is made in consideration of an equivalent 
in service. 

A loan is made for the same purpose and secures 
the same result. The price of the horse or slave must 
be paid before the service can be claimed. The loan 
must be made before there can be a pretext of a claim 
upon the services of the borrower. 

There is this difference, however, that the pur- 



148 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

chaser pays for the services he expects to receive ; he 
makes a real outlay for what is to be given him. The 
usurer pays nothing, he does not give a farthing; he 
makes no outlay ; he merely changes the deposit from 
the bank vault, or his strong box, to his victim, and 
requires from him such an ample security that it is 
as safe in his hands as remaining in the vault. That 
he has bought the service of the borrower as another 
bought the service of the horse or chattel slave is 
untrue. He has given no equivalent. He retains 
every farthing of his wealth safely deposited with his 
victim. The service he receives does not diminish the 
value of his property nor discharge any portion of his 
claim. 

The usurer, like all those who appropriate the 
labors of their slaves, claims that he is a real benefit 
to his borrower. He has given him an opportunity 
of advancement that he could not otherwise have had. 
He points to him possibly with some degree of pride, 
especially if he seems greatly prospered. The owner 
of colored slaves pointed to his well-fed and well- 
clothed and happy people, merry in their cabins, and 
made a claim that was equally plausible; that these 
people are far better ofT and far happier than they 
could be in freedom. 

Their well-kept, happy, care-free condition did not 
make them freemen. They were slaves^ though they 
may have been happy. They were slaves, though 
they preferred bondage to being their own masters. 



Usury Enslaves the Borrozver. 149 

The usurer's prosperous victim is not therefore a 
freeman. Though he should prefer debt to inde- 
pendence, that does not make him free. 

No one prefers to be in debt. Debts are chosen as 
the leavSt of the evils. The natural resources are occu- 
pied and the opportunities of life are denied. Lands 
and all tools of production are withheld and the 
horns of the dilemma are debt or privation. The 
independent spirit shrinks from debt until the strug- 
gle of life becomes desperate, when he turns to the 
other evil and is enslaved. 

This is not a temptation that comes to the idle and 
vicious. They could not secure a loan though they 
tried. An indolent, dissipated and vicious chattel 
slave would not find a purchaser in the market. 

It is the industrious, virtuous and economical 
young man that is of value to the usurer, and the 
better his character, the greater his worth. For this 
reason their virtues are cried up to the usurers, as the 
favorable qualities of the chattel were presented in 
the slave marts. To secure a loan is an evidence of 
confidence in his business ability, and an evidence of 
the appreciation of his character. It is a flattering 
compliment, and promising relief to a condition that 
seems hopeless, he permits the yoke of bondage to 
be fastened upon him. 

The usurer's slave is cheaper than the chattel. It 
requires less wealth to secure an equal amount of 
service. A loan of five thousand dollars at the pre- 



150 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

vailing rate of seven per cent, will bring to the usurer 
more than one dollar, clear gain, for every working 
day. That is as much as any one man, not profes- 
sional or specially skilled, can hope to produce with 
that amount of capital, after caring for himself and 
his home. The borrower secures the lender from all 
loss, he largely relieves him from oversight, he directs 
his own labors, supports himself wholly; if sick, he 
supplies a substitute that the service does not stop, 
and when from the infirmities of age he is no longer 
able to give the required amount of service, one dollar 
per day, he returns the loan in full, which may be 
bound upon another victim, and thus continued for- 
ever. 

In the days of chattel slavery labor was not so cheap. 
The price of a strong, faithful young colored slave, 
and the value of the tools for him to use, and the pro- 
portionate part of the plantation necessary for him to 
work, was about equal to the above loan. Then he 
must be clothed and fed ; his work must be directed ; 
if sick his labor was lost, and he must receive medical 
and other care; all risks of harvest from drouth or 
flood must be incurred by the owner, and the slave's 
term of service was limited by his death, when his 
purchase cost was lost, and there must be an outlay 
by a new purchase. One chattel slave could not 
bring his master such enormous returns. 

Not only does financial slavery exact more labor 
for the amount invested, but it is more heartless than 



Usury Enslaves the Borrower. 151 

chattel bondage. The master had a personal interest 
m the slave he bought. His health and strength was 
an object of his care and his death a great loss. There 
was also often a mutual affection developed, as is 
sometimes found between a man and his horse or 
affectionate dog. There was sometimes real 
unfeigned mutual love. The master had a tender 
care over his slaves in their sicknesses and in their 
decrepit age, and sorrowed at their graves. The 
slaves were inconsolable in their grief at the death of 
their master. 

The usurer has no personal interest in his slave. 
He has no care for his health or his life; they are of 
no interest to him. He may live in a distant state 
and has no anxiety about those who serve him. 
Their personal ills give him no concern. When they 
die, there is no loss nor any additional outlay 
required; the bonds are simply transferred to others, 
and the service is not interrupted. 

Many faithful, industrial and honest borrowers are 
unable to return the loan. It is as difficult to retain 
property as it is to earn it. New inventions, new 
processes, new methods, new legislation and the 
changing fashions and customs, often sweep property 
from the shrewd and careful. ''Riches make them- 
selves wings; they fly away." If for any cause the 
borrower fails there is scant sympathy from the 
usurer. He charges him with being deficient in 
business management and thriftless. If the yoke of 



152 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

bondage galls and becomes so painful that in his dis- 
tress the debtor turns from the struggle in one 
direction to struggle in another in hope of relief, 
he calls him fickle; and if at last, after a long 
and hard service, he is unable to return the loan in 
full, he calls him dishonest. His ear is deaf to the 
voice, ''Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to 
loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy 
burdens, and to let the oppressed go free." 

There are those in debt yet struggling against hope 
to be free. They are slaving at work, but making no 
progress toward relief. The crisis must come. In 
the race with biting usury that knows no rest, night 
nor day, 3^ear in and year out, that knows no sickness 
nor delay, that keeps step with time, there is but one 
possible result. There can be but one final result, 
though the debtor may have a start far in advance, 
but if in the race it has become neck and neck, the end 
is near. Usury will sweep on with full wind, and 
unslacking pace, when the debtor falls exhausted. 
There is comfort, however, though the race be lost, 
for the distress of poverty is less than the agony of 
hopeless debt. 

The old and ruined, who have lived honorable and 
industrious lives, who have endeavored to do their 
part in all the relations of life, yet have been in the 
slavery of debt all their days, and when their powers 
began to fail were stripped of the earnings of years, 
and besides, are compelled to bear the name of dis- 



Usury Enslaves the Borrower. 153 

honorable debtors, are the most worthy of sympathy 
of any the world knows. The decrepit old chattel 
slave had hope of a home until the end, and a decent 
burial, but the debtor has nothing, not even an hon- 
orable name. 

The young, who are yet free from personal debt^ 
should be warned, and should not permit themselves 
to be beguiled by any of the allurements held out, nor 
by flatteries. As one prizes his independent spirit 
and freedom from the dictation of others, as he 
desires a successful life and a peaceful old age, he 
should avoid debt. As a Christian, who desires unre- 
strained Christian fellowship, whose benevolence will 
be from the kindness and love of his own heart, as 
one who wishes to bless all he meets, and to leave a 
name associated only with hallowed memories, he 
should avoid debt. 

''Owe no man anything, but love one another." 



CHAPTER XXV. 
USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR. 

Moses, Solomon and the prophets connect usury 
with the oppression of the poor. For this reason 
many have thought the divine prohibition of usury 
applied only to loans to the poor. By careful atten- 
tion we will find that its evils are not confined to the 
immediate participants in the transaction. In the 
natural operation of economic laws the ultimate 
burden rests upon the poor. It is clear that when each 
member of a community contributes his portion to 
the common welfare the burdens are equally dis- 
tributed. When any one fails to contribute his pro- 
portion the burdens are made heavier for the other 
members, and the burdens increase as the number 
increases of those who for any cause fail to contribute 
their part. 

This is true in the family home life. When every 

member of the household is able, and with cheerful 

willingness does his full part for the family support 

and comfort, the burden is equally distributed. Let 

one member of the family be in any way disabled and 

his duties must be performed by others. If several 

are disabled the burdens upon the others may be 

greatly increased. If any are indolent the burdens 

are made heavy upon those who are industrious. 
154 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 155 

The same is true in the larger family, the com- 
munity and the state, for political economy is but 
enlarged home economy. The burdens are lightest 
when every one contributes his full share to the gen- 
eral welfare. When any are idle the duties become 
heavier upon those who are faithful. 

Usury makes it possible for many to live upon 
incomes from their property. They are not classed, 
nor do they class themselves, among those who are 
personally productive. This makes it necessary for 
the poor, those who have no property, to produce 
more in order to house and clothe and feed the com- 
munity. 

But those non-productive persons are consumers 
and are the most active consumers. They make 
heavy drafts upon the energies of others. They 
become extravagant in their habits and the spend- 
thrifts of the world ; while in proportion to their 
extravagant habits there must be severity and sim- 
plicity in the habits of the industrious and productive, 
on whom the support of the community rests. 

The world does not grow richer nor are the con- 
ditions of life for one class eased by the extravagance 
of another class. 

It is sometimes said that the idleness and the waste- 
ful habits of some are for the benefit of others because 
they make a demand for more work. It would give 
the lumberman and nail-cutter and carpenter and 
glazier and plasterer and painter more work to call 



156 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

back the fire department and let the house burn, but 
that is not the way to house the houseless. Extrava- 
gance is wasteful destruction of property. 

"It is insisted upon both moral and economic 
grounds that no public benefit of any kind arises from 
the existence of a rich idle class. Their incomes must 
be paid, though inconsistent with the public good. 
To illustrate, the London and Southwestern railroad 
contemplated a reduction of fares in cars of the third- 
class. It was defeated because it might reduce the 
dividends. The poor could not be relieved lest it 
should reduce the incomes of the idle." — Ruskin. 

That family is happy and prosperous in which 
every member contributes personally his portion to 
its support and comfort. That condition affords the 
highest measure of relief for all. It is unfortunate if 
there should be an idler in the home who^ as a para- 
site, feeds on the industry of the others ; it is a double 
misfortune if that idler proves a spendthrift to waste 
the thrifty gatherings of the diligent. The same 
economic principles make it necessary for the highest 
good of every individual in the community that each 
shall contribute his personal part. *Tf any will not 
work neither shall he eat." If any insist upon eating 
and yet will not work, it imposes an oppressive bur- 
den on others to compel them to supply his table. 

Again: The limiting of production is a hardness 
to the poor. Their welfare requires the largest pos- 
sible product along every line of human needs. Over- 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 167 

production is a term of the trade and means only 
that the supply has become so great that it cannot be 
sold at prices satisfactory to the trade. But as the 
prices fall the market broadens. Consumption in- 
creases with the increasing abundance, and that 
which it was not possible for certain classes to enjoy 
now comes within their reach and may become pos- 
sible to even the poorest. There never can be an 
over-supply of fruits and vegetables and grains and 
meats and shoes and clothes and salt and oil and fuel 
and houses until the wants of the poorest are supplied. 
Their welfare requires that there shall be no restrain- 
ing of the supply until they come out of their huts 
into houses; until they can shed their rags and dress 
in clothes both comfortable and attractive ; until their 
tables are suppHed with nutritious food; until they 
have the means of discovering and cultivating their 
aesthetic nature by shaking off the repellant con- 
ditions in which they are mostly compelled to live. 

The practice of usury restrains the supply by free- 
ing so large a part of the people from the necessity of 
active productive effort by the incomes from their 
properties. Many born to wealth have never felt the 
necessity, and have never made an effort nor turned 
a thought along productive Hues. The world has lost 
all that they might have added to the world's supply 
for human needs. Many, who have been successful 
in accumulation early in life, retire from active work 
while yet in full vigor, because they are reUeved of 



158 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

the necessity by the income of usury or increase, and 
the most valuable portion of their lives is lost to the 
world. 

Production is further limited by the demand that 
it shall yield an increase on the property employed. 
The shop is shut down when the goods cannot be 
sold at such a price as to pay a satisfactory profit on 
the investment. The shop stands idle until the stock 
is depleted and the demand raises the price of the 
goods and then the shop is again opened. The 
workmen could go on with their work, supplying the 
world with their goods, bringing the price down until 
within the reach of the poorest, but it is the owner 
of the shop that holds the key and demands that the 
supply shall be so far restrained that the price shall 
yield a satisfactory increase on the property. 

Inventions and improved tools are a blessing to 
the poor when they make labor so productive that 
they can enjoy results of labor that could not be 
enjoyed by them before. They are not a blessing 
when used to gain an increase on wealth by employ- 
/^ing less labor. Their proper use is to make labor 
more productive; their perverted use is to make 
property more profitable. 

There is a natural restraint by the law of supply 
and demand when all needs are so supplied that there 
is no longer a sufficient compensation to the pro- 
ducer ; but it is a perverted and unrighteous restraint 
to place property between productive labor and 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 159 

\ human needs and demand a reward for it before these 
i human needs shall be satisfied. There is an utter 
want of pity for the poor in permitting them to go 
unhoused, unfed and unclothed, unless there shall be 
a profit by increase in supplying their wants. True 
benevolence requires that labor shall be made so 
effective as to fill every human need, but pure selfish- 
ness uses property to supply the need for a gain. 
This restraint for an increase on property is oppres- 
sion of the poor for a price. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR— Continued. 

The influence of any act is not limited to the person 
acting. The righteous act of a righteous man 

; blesses himself and his generation and generations 
yet unborn. So the influence of a wrong act is not 
limited to the wrong-doer, but extends to others and 
is harmful to those who had no voluntary part in the 
act. Though the wrong be a personal habit and the 
sinner be himself the greatest sufiferer, yet it is impos- 
sible to avoid causing distress to others who are 
themselves innocent. 

Equity between those who participate in a wrong 

i does not make a wrong act righteous. Thieves may 

\ be just among themselves, in the division of the spoils 
secured from others, but that does not make them 

\ upright men, nor does it make their business honest. 
If it were possible to preserve equity between the bor- 
rower and the lender upon usury, yet that would 
not justify the act nor remove the evil. The collec- 
tion of their profits, which they divide equitably 
among themselves, imposes a burden upon others 
who have no part in the transaction. Their satisfac- 
tory agreement does not make the transaction less 
detrimental to the general good. It may the rather 
partake of the nature of a conspiracy against the 
public welfare. 
160 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 161 

The promoter of an enterprise on borrowed capital 
is practically but the agent of the lender. He may 
be the director and manager but he so conducts his 
undertaking as to gather the usury from others. 
When the opportunities for profitable investments 
become rare, and money accumulates and is lying 
idle, such promoters with their schemes are encour- 
aged in order to gain a profit on the investment, 
though others sufrer by it. 

There lies upon this table a booklet, written in j 
1841, which charges and proves complicity between | 
the bankers and brokers of New York at that time. 
The bankers loaned the brokers the money which ; 
they reloaned at very high rates. The banks refused ■ 
accommodations to those in pressing need, compell- 
ing them to go to the brokers and to submit to their 
extortionate demands. 

Though there may be an equitable arrangement 
between the owner of property and his broker and 
between the broker and his promoter, yet in the last 
analysis it will be found that this equitable arrange- 
ment, in its ultimate result, is of the nature of a con- 
spiracy to compel the innocent poor to pay the profits 
of both; their consent is not first secured nor do 
they gain a single advantage and they are helpless to 
resist. 

Though the transaction may have been between 
the rich, a rich lender and a rich borrower, yet the 
final result is that the interest is paid by the poor. In 



162 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

Calvin's letter of apology he supposes a case of equity 
between a rich land owner who is in need of ready 
money and the man who has money to buy a farm, 
but instead lends to his rich landlord and takes a 
mortgage. In this case the tenants of the borrower 
must pay the interest and finally the principal also. 
This increases the hardness of their hard lot. Though 
Calvin seems to appreciate the severe conditions of 
the ordinary tenant in his day, yet he fails to recog- 
nize that the very illustration he gives would result 
in greater oppression. 

When one entrusts his money to a broker for 
investment he does not come in contact with those 
who earn the interest. It may pass through a number 
of agents and the source from which the interest is 
drawn is not regarded. When one entrusts his 
money to the ''Security Co." in their great building, 
surrounded by all appearances of unlimited wealth, 
it is not realized that the interest returned is wrung 
from the poor. Money does not lie in the vaults. It 
is loaned to others who as agents do collect or gather 
from the poor. A loan is made to a milling company 
and the interest is gathered from all who buy their 
flour. A loan is made to a landlord and he collects 
the usury from his tenants. A loan is made to a street 
car company and increase is collected from the 
employes and from every rider. A loan is made to 
a merchant and he collects from his customers. 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 163 

It is easy to see who pay the interest when we make " 
a common pawnbroker our agent and see in his dingy 
rooms the evident distress and needs of his callers. 
Many shrink from his oppressions who are deceived 
by the splendid surroundings of the "Security Co." 
But the interest is exacted from the same class as 
truly by one as by the other. ^ 

Usury oppresses the poor by raising the price of all 
that he consumes. Without being consulted and 
without the power of resistance he must pay tribute 
to property for the very necessities of life. 

He lives in a rented house. The owner has placed 
a mortgage on this house and the tenant must pay 
the interest and more in his rental or be ejected. The 
bread he must have is from wheat raised on mort- 
gaged land and the interest must be met in the price 
of wheat. The mill is mortgaged in which it is 
ground and the interest must be paid in the increased 
price of flour. The railroad is bonded and the inter- 
est on the bonds must be paid in the price of its trans- 
portation, and the merchant has a loan to enable him 
to do business and the interest on this loan must be 
met in the increase of the profits on flour and all other 
goods he handles. By usury a tribute is levied on his 
bread from the wheat in the field until it reachcb his 
tables. '"" 

In the same way he pays interest in the price of his 
meat, which is raised on a mortgaged farm, trans- 
ported over a bonded railroad, dressed in a mort- 



164 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usfiry. 

gaged abattoir and sold by a dealer doing business on 
borrowed capital. 

The same is true of his clothes ; a first tribute must 
be paid to property by the raw cotton or wool, then 
the transportation and the factory and the merchant, 
in addition to the compensation for their services, 
must meet also the interest upon their loans, and the 
whole is summed up in the price the poor man must 
pay. He has no option in the matter; he has no 
alternative, no method by which he can escape. The 
same is true with regard to his fuel and his light. 

The same is true with regard to car fares. In every 
ride he pays an enormous tribute to invested wealth. 
The writer made a careful estimate of the accounts of 
a car line in a small city where the number of riders 
bore small comparison with the crowded cars of any 
metropolis. When the cost of maintenance of the 
plant, including the wear and tear and all repairs, and 
the cost of operation, covering all current expenses, 
including taxes, were compared with the receipts 
from the patrons of the road, it was found that less 
than two cents per passenger was necessary to pay 
these charges and that three cents had gone to pay 
the interest on the enormous bonded indebtedness 
and dividends on the inflated stock. 

The wage-earner, the pensioner and every person 
living upon an annuity or fixed income from any 
source, must thus pay usury or interest on obligations 
they never incurred. A large portion of their living 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 165 

is thus taken from them, and under a system of gen- 
eral usury they have no way of avoiding" it. They 
must pay an enormous tribute to property in pro- 
viding the common necessaries of Hfe. 

Usury lowers the poor man's wages. The owners 
of property forbid its use until such a concession is 
made by the laborer as they may demand for the 
material and tools of production. Those who will 
use them and give the owner the highest return for 
their use secure the work, i. e., those who will bid 
the labor the lowest, who will use the tools and work 
up the material the cheapest. 

The demand of capital has come to absorb a large 
portion of the produce of labor. In 1890 the wage- 
earners created a value of $3,579,168,172 and 
received out of it wages amounting to $1,981,228,- 
321, leaving in the hands of the employers $1,687,- 
939,851. Labor thus received a little less than 53 
per cent, of its product. In 1900 the wage-earners 
created a value of $4,640,784,931 and received out 
of it wages amounting to $2,323,407,257, leaving in 
the hands of employers $2,317,377,674. The 
employers and employes divided labor's product so 
evenly that the difference does not amount to one- 
eighth of one per cent. 

The decade 1890 to 1900 has been of unprece- 
dented prosperity to capital^ but the advantages to 
labor have not appeared. When the number of labor- 
ers at the beginning and the close of the decade are 



166 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

considered the annual income of the wage-earner at 
the close of the decade is actually $7 per year less 
than ten years ago. 

The tribute to property must first be gained, the 
wages are secondary. If the tribute is not paid the 
enterprise is regarded as not successful and the 
industry closes. 
j There is no protection for the laborer except the 
j selfishness of capitaHsts themselves in competition to 
/ secure the services of labor. But the selfish strife has 
i rather resulted in the combination of their capital to 
I dispense with labor or to cause the same labor to 
produce more by the employment of more capital. 
I The effect is to give employment to capital rather 
than to labor. If labor can be dispensed with by 
borrowing more capital, then a loan is secured and 
the laborer is dismissed. Thus capital is made to 
crowd out the laborer and gains for itself his reward. 
• This diminishes the call for labor and increases the 
number of the unemployed and they become com- 
petitors for the privilege of working. The oppor- 
H tunities for labor becoming fewer, the strife for work 
becomes fiercer. The laborer is helpless to resist, as 
his wants do not stop; his family must be fed and 
clothed and housed. The struggle is unequal between 
'*flesh and blood" and a material thing that, by a false 
economy, is given not only the power of self-support 
but also continuous increase. For this reason com- 
I binations of laborers never have been and never can 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 167 

be successful in a conflict with capital. So long as the 
false principle is admitted, all efforts must fail. So 
long as it is granted that property has earning power, 
the effort will be made by the owners of property, 
and always successfully made, to have property 
receive the larger portion of the reward. The true 
order will be reversed; the laborer will be given a 
mere subsistence while the increase will be claimed 
for the capital; the very opposite of the true order, 
the mere preservation or subsistence of the capital, 
while all the increase belongs to the laborers. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 
USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR— Continued. 

Usury makes it possible to impose on the poor the 
principal burden of taxation. Though taxes are 
levied upon property it is a delusion to think that 
those who own no property pay no taxes. By usury 
the taxes are easily slipped upon the poor. 

If the tax levy is one per cent, on property then in 
a year the one hundred dollars has been decreased by 
one dollar and is but ninety-nine, unless that dollar 
has been supplied from other earnings of the owner. 
Thus vacant lots, jewels and hoarded stores are a bur- 
den to their owner. But when the property can add 
to itself an increase, then there need be no diminution 
of the amount, and no sacrifice is necessary on the 
part of the owner. If the wealth is placed in the form 
of a loan on mortgage on a house, the tenant in his 
rental pays the interest on that mortgage, which 
meets the tax and also yields a revenue to the owner, 
and leaves the wealth undiminished. The tenant 
earned the tax, and both property and owner are 
relieved. The mortgage may be upon a manufactur- 
ing plant, when the operatives pay the tax from their 
earnings. 

The bonded debt of a city or state, in the ultimate 

result, is collected from the productive labor. To 
]68 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 169 

pay the interest and principal of the bonded debt of 
a city the tax levy is increased, and a greater propor- 
tionate amount of labor is appropriated. Laboring 
people without property are often amazed at the 
indifference of property holders when a great bonded 
debt is incurred, as both interest and principal are to 
be paid by a tax upon property. Those who make 
the loan to the city, and all who hold mortgages and 
dividend paying properties, are complacent because 
the taxes of a hundred years would never diminish 
their property a dollar, though the tax levy should be 
doubled. It would raise the interest on money, 
diminish the price of labor and raise the price of 
goods, but those who profit by the gain of usury are 
untouched by it. 

Recently complaints were made by the tenants of 
one of the poor districts of London because their 
rentals had been greatly increased. The reply of the 
landlord was direct and clear: ''You have voted for 
public improvements and now you must pay for 
them." 

The same is true of the interest and principal of the 
national debt. The revenue is raised from a levy 
upon importations, as, for example, tea, the tax on 
which is ten cents per pound. The tax is collected 
from the importer and by him attached to the price 
for which it is sold to the wholesale dealer and by him 
attached to the price he charges the retail dealer and 
by him the amount is collected from the consumer. 



170 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

Sufficient notice is usually given that the importer 
and the dealers may dispose of all their goods before 
the tariff is removed. A public announcement of 
such a purpose was recently made in reference to the 
tax upon tea. 

The tax collected from the consumer is far heavier 
than the mere levy of the government. The importer 
demands a profit on the amount of revenue tax he 
has paid as well as on the amount he pays for the 
goods. This results in greatly increasing the burdens 
of the poor. The revenue tax recently imposed by 
Great Britain of three pence per cwt. on wheat and 
five pence per cwt. on flour resulted immediately 
in the addition of one penny to the price of the four- 
pound loaf to the consumers. 

Again : This attributing to property the quality of 
self-perpetuation and increase has led to its incor- 
poration and in a manner separation from those who 
own it. Property must always have an owner. 

Personality must always come in else there are no 
rights to be considered. Labor apart from a person 
laboring and property apart from a person owning 
are impersonal and no ethical or moral laws can be 
applied to them. They are only physical forces and 
material things. The wind may push against a tree 
and overcome its resistance and the tree falls. That 
is merely an abstract force against a material thing. 
But when my energy is exerted against your tree and 
destroys it, then personal responsibility and personal 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 171 

rights must be considered. A righteous adjustment 
between labor and capital can never be arrived at 
without the consideration of the personal elements 
on both sides. The moral and ethical laws must be 
applied as well as the physical and economic. 

Incorporated property, however, has eliminated 
from it the ethical and moral responsibility of person- 
ality and is regarded as possessed only of economic 
and physical qualities and restrained only by legal 
statutes. 

Incorporated properties are not generally managed 
by those who own them. The managers are employed 
by the owners, who are ready to pay large compen- 
sation to those who have the tact and brain and nerve 
power and peculiar quality of conscience to gain for 
them a satisfactory increase. It is their work to press 
this irresponsible material body up against "flesh and 
blood." 

The incorporation employs the laborer when his 
labor earns a satisfactory dividend on the capital, 
and lays him off or discharges him whenever it seems 
most to the advantage of the investment. A plant 
is built and operated for a time and then the plant is 
closed, or the location is changed without the slight- 
est regard to the sacrifices of the poor laborers who 
have gathered around and are left stranded. 

Laborers everywhere throughout Christendom 
need and beg for a Sabbath of rest, but neither phys- 



172 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

ical needs nor conscientious scruples are regarded 
when a greater dividend can be gained in seven days 
than in six. 

On the part of the workman, resistance is useless. 
He can do nothing but yield to the economic and 
physical force managed by those in whom human 
sympathy and pity for the suffering and helpless are 
not permitted. The dividend must be gained though 
it be necessary to grind the poor. 

The owner of this steel plant is in a distant city. 
All employes, from the manager down to the porter, 
must so serve that he shall receive the dividend. This 
mercantile house is owned by a woman on a pleas- 
ure trip round the world. All who are connected 
with this business must so serve and sacrifice that she 
shall receive her income regularly. This railroad is 
owned by those who have gone a-yachting in south- 
ern seas. It must be so managed that the revenues 
shall not fail whatever the sacrifice required of others. 

The writer once heard an American statesman, 
who afterward became President of the United 
States, deliver an elaborate and carefully prepared 
oration on a great occasion, in which he discussed 
the growing power and controlling influence in state 
and national affairs of incorporations. He did not 
formulate a remedy but said, 'The problem to be 
solved by the next generation is, how shall the peo- 
ple be protected against the encroachments of incor- 
porated wealth?" It need scarcely be said that there 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. * 173 

was no discussion of that question during the cam- 
paign which closed with his election to the presi- 
dency. 

Usury is both the basis of the incorporation and the 
instrument of its oppression. Incorporated wealth 
must not be permitted to claim personal rights and 
yet escape personal responsibility. It must be held 
to the same ethical and moral laws as the individual. 
Personal responsibility must not be eliminated from 
property. It must not be divested of personal 
responsibility and then pressed as a mere material 
thing up against ''flesh and blood." 

No instrument of oppression ever surpassed in 
severity the usury of incorporated wealth and re- 
tained the pretense of respectability. It is sucking 
the blood of the poor every hour, yet they cherish 
and pet the vampire, not realizing that it is their 
blood upon which it feeds. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

USURY OPPRESSES THE POOR— Concluded. 

Usury increases its burdens in proportion to the 
poverty. It is the most oppressive upon the poorest. 
Property in any measure is a relief. However small 
the amount may be, to that degree it assists in bear- 
ing the burden. Those who have a home are relieved 
of the burden of usury by rent. Those who own 
their shops or farms on which they can employ their 
labor are relieved of the usury of tools and material. 
From the conditions now prevailing the burden of 
usury rests on all those, the half of whose income is 
the product of their own labor. The one who re- 
ceives one-half his income from the interest on 
property and one-half from his own labor has no 
advantage from usury. The income of his labor 
would bring him as many of the comforts of life as 
his labor now does, plus the income from his property. 
There is no advantage until a greater part of the 
income is derived from property. A small savings 
account, adding a few dollars annually to the income, 
is a very small offset to the constant drain from usury 
in all that we buy and upon all our earnings. The 
full burden however is upon those who have nothing 
but their own productive energy; who receive only 
174 



Usurv Oppresses the Poor. 175 

wages and must buy in the market. As the relief 
afforded by property decreases, the oppressive burden 
of usury in present conditions increases. 

It is a fair estimate that usury is oppressive until 
relieved by the income from property to the amount 
of one-half of the entire income received. When 
less, the oppression begins and leans its full weight 
and without pity upon the poorest and most help- 
less. 

He that has no property is dependent upon others 
for employment and in his wages must give a part of 
his product as tribute to the capital he uses. This, 
in the case of the average wage earner in this country, 
is not less than one-third, that is, he who earns one 
dollar and a half will receive as wages one dollar, the 
other half dollar is retained by the employer as 
due for the capital invested. Then having no home 
he must pay tribute to property in shelter for him- 
self and family. The rent will be higher in propor- 
tion to the poverty of the apartments. The poorest 
tenement returns the highest rate of interest to the 
landlord. 

His decreased wages do not make the necessities 
of life proportionately cheap to him. He pays usury 
in the price of the fuel which he burns, of the oil, gas 
or electric Hght in his home. In the price of vege- 
tables, bread and clothes and shoes. There is an 
increased outgo at every turn which he cannot avoid. 
He is helpless to resist. 



176 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

He can but struggle staggering along while work 
is given and his health and strength remain. When 
these fail he falls and must become entangled in debt, 
from which there is no hope of being able to extricate 
himself. 

The state recognizes the hopelessness of the poor 
man who is in debt and has provided a relief by 
bankruptcy, by which he may again arise and struggle 
on. This discharge in bankruptcy is an act of mercy 
but the relief from the oppressions of usury would be 
an act of justice. Grinding the helpless poor between 
low wages and high prices and then relieving them by 
the act of bankruptcy is only pulling them out of the 
mill to throw them into the hopper again, for the 
wage earner who has no protection from any pro- 
perty is between these upper and nether mill stones. 

Those Avho defend the fraud of usury alwa^^s take 
to cover behind the widow and the fatherless. They 
plausibly pretend to be zealous for their protection 
while endeavoring to hide their own greed. Their 
pleas are often touchingly pathetic. ''A thrifty lov- 
ing father was taken away by death from a dear wife 
and sweet little ones. They had always leaned on 
his strong arms. He was their joy, their protector 
and their support. This widow and her fatherless 
children are left with nothing to support them except 
the saved hard earnings of this husband's life. As 
these earnings are their only support they are deposi- 
ted with care with the 'Security Co.' for safety and 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 177 

that the regular interest dues may be received without 
fail. If there should be one failure they would suffer. 
The 'Security Co.' loan their deposits as opportunity 
offers. They take some local mortgages and also 
some mortgages on western lands. They buy some 
bonds of a milling trust and also of a railroad and 
street car line and some national bonds and loan on 
personal security to local merchants and traders. 
From all these sources the interest is regularly col- 
lected and regularly paid to this widowed mother, 
without which she and her little fatherless dear ones 
must suffer. 'Certainly/ they say 'usury is not 
oppressive to the widow and the fatherless. Usury 
comes to the help of the helpless.' " 

Another faithful industrious father was taken away 
from his wife and his little ones. He had been their 
stay and support. He was sober and thrifty but 
sickness and tmtoward conditions made accumula- 
tions impossible. When he, the head of the home^ 
was taken away there was nothing for the support 
of these helpless little ones and their widowed mother 
but her own arms and head and heart. There was no 
time for sentiment and tears. These little ones must 
be sheltered and their hungry mouths must be fed. 
Restraining her grief, she bravely undertakes the 
heavy task. 

She rents a room but the rental is high, for the 
interest must be paid on a mortgage held by the 
Security Co. She finally finds a shop where she 



178 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

secures employment but the wages are low, for the 
shop is heavily mortgaged to the Security Co. and 
the interest must be paid or the shop will be closed 
and even this opportunity for scant wages will be 
lost. The distance requires that she shall ride to her 
work but the round trip costs two nickels and one 
of them goes to the Security Co. for interest on their 
bonds and stock. She buys a loaf of bread but the 
wheat was raised on a western farm mortgaged to the 
Security Co. and the interest was charged up against 
the wheat. The wheat was floured in a trust mill and 
the interest on the Security Co. bonds were charged 
up against the flour. It was transported by a railroad 
that charged up against it the interest on the bonds 
held by the Security Co. It was baked in a mort- 
gaged oven and handled by a local dealer doing 
business on capital he had borrowed of the Security 
Co. How much of her bread money went for in- 
terests is an intricate problem. She only notices that 
her loaf is small. 

The same oppressive tribute must be paid on all 
that she buys to feed and clothe herself and her little 
ones. 

The first widow does not live upon the earnings of 
her husband. They are untouched at the end of a 
year nor diminished as the years pass. By the opera- 
tion of usury she has Hved upon the hard earnings of 
this poor widow. The laborers on the western farms 
contributed to her support in decreases of wages; 



Usury Oppresses the Poor. 179 

the operatives of the railways, the workmen in the 
mill, the baker and merchant all contribute a por- 
tion, but it cannot be denied that the heaviest burden 
comes upon the poorest. The rich widow has fed 
her children with the bread which the poor widow 
earned. 

The flaunting sympathy for the poor of those who 
themselves feed upon them, is rank hypocracy. Nor 
can those who have grown fat by the practice of 
usury, condone the crime by tossing back to them a 
portion of the unjust gain. 

'Ts it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for 
a man to afflict his soul? ... Is not this the fast 
that I have chosen? . . . To undo the heavy 
burdens and to let the oppressed go free? . . 
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that 
thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house?" 



CHAPTER XXIX. 
USURY CENTRALIZES WEALTH. 

The dictum of Bacon that "Usury gathers the 
wealth of the realm into few hands" is readily proven 
and fully verified in the experience of these times. 
The tendency to centralization under a system of 
usury or interest-taking is so strong, and the modern 
result so apparent that the statemxcnt only is 
necessary. 

Usury not only enslaves the borrower and op- 
presses the poor who are innocent of all debt, but it 
also afifects the rich by gathering the wealth of the 
Vv^ealthy into fev/er and fewer hands. There is a 
centralizing draft that threatens and then finally 
absorbs the smaller fortunes into one colossal finan- 
cial power. It is as futile to resist this as to resist 
fate. Wealth cannot be so fortified and guarded as 
to successfully resist the attack -of superior wealth 
when the practice of usury is permitted. The sm.aller 
and weaker fortune, using the same weapon as the 
larger and stronger, must inevitably be defeated and 
overcome, and ultimately absorbed. 

Rates of interest do not affect the ultimate result. 

Under a high rate the gathering is rapid, under a 

lov/ rate the accretions are slower, but the gathering 

into few hands is none the less sure. Rates of interest 
180 



Usury Centralizes Wealth. 181 

only place the convergent center at a nearer or more 
remote period. 

If any interest is right, compound interest is right. 
When simple interest is due and paid, it may be 
loaned to another party, and thus the usurer secures 
interest upon his interest, though not from the same 
debtor. When the interest is to be paid annually, it 
is to be assumed, if not paid, that the debtor takes it 
as a loan in addition to the face of the note of his obli- 
gation. This saves the care of receiving and re-loan- 
ing to another. The custom of usurers, however, is to 
renew the note, adding the interest to the face, if 
unpaid. The mass of bank paper is renewed each 
ninety days : Com.pounded four times a year, 
.whether to the same or to another debtor, the result 
in accretion is the same. 

Few reahze the rapidity at which a loan increases, 
accelerating in geometrical progression as time 
passes. Any loan will double itself at three per cent. 
in twenty-three and a half years ; at seven per cent, in 
ten and a fourth years, and at ten per cent, in seven 
and a third years. One dollar loaned for one hundred 
years, at three per cent., would amount to nineteen 
dollars ; at seven per cent, one thousand dollars, and 
at ten per cent, thirteen thousand. 

The island upon which New York stands was 
bought from the Indians for the value of twenty- 
four dollars by Peter Minuits in 1626. Yet, if the 
purchaser had put his twenty-four dollars at interest, 



182 ScripUiral, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

where he could have added it to the principal at the 
rate of seven per cent., the accumulation would now 
exceed the total value of the entire city and county of 
New York. 

M. Jennet quotes the elaborate calculation of an 
ingenious author to show that 100 francs ($20) accu- 
mulating at five per cent, compound interest for seven 
centuries, would be suf^cient to buy the whole sur- 
face of the globe, both land and water, at the rate of 
1,000,000 francs ($200,000) per hectare (nearly four 
square miles). From this we can gather that $20 at 
five per cent, compound interest for 700 years, would 
buy all the earth, mountains, and swamp lands, and 
water, at $80 per acre. 

Another mathematical genius says, had one cent 
been loaned on the first day of January A. D. 1, in- 
terest being allowed at the rate of six per cent, com- 
pounded yearly, then 1895 years later — that is on 
January 1, 1895 — the amount due would be $8,497,- 
840,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 
000 (8,497,840,000 decillions). If it were desired to 
pay this in gold, 23.2 grains to the dollar, then taking 
spheres of pure gold the size of the earth, it would 
take 610,070,000,000,000,000 to pay for that cent. 
Placing these spheres in a straight row, their com- 
bined length would be 4,826,870,000,000,000,000 
miles, a distance which it would take light (going at 
the rate of 186,330 miles per second) 820,890,000 
years to travel. 



Usury Central hes Wealth. 183 

The planets and stars of the entire solar and stellar 
universe, as seen by the great Lick telescope, if they 
were all in solid gold, would not nearly pay the 
amount. A single sphere to pay the whole amount, 
if placed with its centre at the sun, would have its 
surface extending 563,580,000 miles be3^ond the orbit 
of the planet Neptune, the farthest in our system. 

It may be added that if the earth had contained a 
population of ten billions, each one making a million 
dollars a second, then to pay for that cent it would 
have required their combined earnings for 26,938,- 
500,000,000,000,000,000 years. 

Anyone can figure on this and see if it be correct. 

Had Peter only thought to put one cent at interest, 
there would be no call now for Peter's pence. 

With any accretion allowed, the concentration of 
wealth is irresistible. However small the amount of 
capital, if permitted to grow at any rate of increase 
it will ultimately absorb everything. Any finite 
quantity permitted any finite rate of increase, will, 
in finite time, gather all that is less than infinite. 

The only difficulty in this accretion is to secure 
debtors that will not die. We inherit the property of 
our fathers, but fortunately we do not inherit their 
personal debts. This difficulty is being overcome by 
bonds of corporations and nations that live on, 
though the individuals composing them may, age 
after age, pass away. This makes the increase per- 



184 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Vieiv of Usury. 

petual. Generations may come and go, but the con- 
centration of wealth goes uninterruptedly on. 

This is not visionary theory, but is shown in the 
practical results everywhere apparent. 

The usurers of England^ a little over two hundred 
years ago, secured a charter for a bank on the con- 
dition that they loan the crown or government 
1,200,000 pounds sterHng, about six million dollars. 

This was a perpetual loan^ never to be repaid, but 
annual interest at eight per cent, was to be paid by the 
government forever. This constant annual interest 
paid to this bank has made it such a financial power 
that it reaches and draws to itself of the resources of 
all lands. The aggregated vv^ealth of the institution, 
if the accretions were continuous, would now be 
$25,165,824,000,000. The wealth of the United 
Kingdom is estimated at fifty billions, and all Europe 
two hundred billions, the United States seventy 
billions, and the whole world's wealth at five hundred 
billions. 

Were the accretions of the bank at eight per cent, 
undisturbed and unconsumed, it would now take fifty 
worlds as rich as ours to pay that debt. It is some- 
times wondered how there can be such an accumula- 
tion of wealth in one institution as to control the 
finances of the world. 

It is often attributed to superior wisdom or some 
profound, occult manipulation. It is but the natural 



Usury Centralizes Wealth. 185 

operation of the principle of interest — accretion from 
age to age. 

The managers may be stupid dolts, only so they 
do not interfere with the usurious principle in its 
eternal pull on the resources of mankind. 

The interest bearing debt of the United States, at 
this date, is about one thousand millions. This in one 
hundred years at six per cent, would amount to $340,- 
000,000,000; five times the whole present wealth of 
the nation. 

The smallest national bank organized, by the de- 
posit of $25,000 of bonds yielding two per cent, in- 
terest, and permitted to re-loan the same funds to its. 
private customers at eight per cent., could gather to 
itself in one hundred years, $345,225,000. 

The wealth of an individual or of a family may also 
grow with the years as they pass. The property may 
be in pubHc bonds or that of incorporations, requir- 
ing no care or effort on their part, yet it may be con- 
tinually increasing. A usurer in any community in 
one Hfe comes to absorb the wealth of that com- 
munity, though the amount loaned at the beginning 
was small.. 

The accretions are the irresistible result of the 
principle of usury. 

The wealth is more and more centralized as the 
years pass. Great trees in the forest shadow the 
smaller, and rob them of the sunshine and moisture 
until they perish. Great fish in the crowded pond 



186 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

feed upon the smaller. Individual manufacturers are 
absorbed by the great combinations called trusts. 
The stockholders of a railroad are absorbed by those 
who have large and controlling interest. But the 
railroad is itself absorbed by another yet greater cor- 
poration, and this again by a great combine that 
eliminates the influence of all but the chief control, 
and tends to a complete centralization of all the 
svstems. 

There is no escaping from this centralizing draft 
upon all resources, when the system of interest-taking 
is as general as now. Freedom from personal debt 
does not deliver us. The farmer, the most inde- 
pendent of men, in his own home, free from personal 
debt, yet must contribute to this centralizing by pay- 
ing interest on bonds in every shipment of produce, 
and every mile of railroad travel. He pays tribute 
also in all the tools that he buys, in the food that he | 
eats and the clothes that he wears. 

This centralizing draft is constant, though not 
always equally apparent. Certain favorable con- 
ditions may hold in check, for a time, the adverse 
influence and cause a temporary distribution of 
wealth to the producers. Its force is not, however, 
destroyed, but only restrained for a time, and then 
draws with accumulated power. 

Times of industrial depression and commercial dis- 
asters are occurring over and over again. Some 
economists attribute them to the peculiar industrial 



Usury Cenfrali::;es Wealth. 187 

and monetar}^ conditions of the periods in which they 
occur; but they have seldom agreed as to the causes 
of any particular panic. They are so regular in their 
recurrence that some economists have thought they 
must be produced by some constant cause; like the 
moon causing the tides of the ocean. Both are true. 
There is a general and there is also a secondary or 
superficial cause. 

The times of greatest commercial disasters in this 
country were in the years 1809, 1818, 1837, 1873, 
1893. 

The political economists can assign as reasons 
some peculiar conditions prevailing in each of these 
periods, but the wisest have never gone deep enough 
to discover the general cause; this constant cen^ 
tralizing draft of usury. 

In these periods of commercial disaster there is no 
destruction of property. There is only a general 
shake up and redistribution. All the wealth of the! 
country remains, but after the disaster wealth is 
always found to be in fewer hands. Some have be-' 
come rich, many who were thought to be wealthy are 
ruined, and the number of the poor has been 
multiphed. 

A patient may be afiflicted with some deep-seated, 
chronic disease that makes him very easily affected 
by a change of the weather, by a change of his diet or 
of his bed, and these may be assigned as the causes 
of his frequent relapses, and they are the immediate 



188 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

or secondary causes, but the real cause is the deep- 
seated, chronic disease. Cure that disease and the 
changes m conditions, now so serious, would not be 
noticed by the healthy man. 

The real and constant cause of our recurring finan- 
icial disasters is this centralizing usury that directly 
opposes the distribution of wealth that is natural, 
when the producers of wealth are permitted to receive 
and enjoy it. Root out this evil, and then the trifling 
differences in our harvests, changes in our tariff laws, 
currency legislation, and the score of other things 
that now affect us, would be unfelt by the healthy 
body politic. 

If this centralizing power is destroyed then the 
natural distribution would be undisturbed, and these, 
so-called, panics would be unknown. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

MAMMON DOMINATES THE NATIONS. 

The debt habit has been diligently cultivated and 
encouraged, until the nations are enslaved. Public 
bonds imply bondsmen, and the nations are no longer 
free. There is a mortgage upon the inventive genius, 
industry and productive energy of the world. 

Usurers greatly prefer an organized government as 
a debtor. The individual may die, but a nation's 
debts bind from age to age, are bequeathed by the 
fathers to the children, and thus descend from genera- 
tion to generation. The bonds of no corporation, 
however great and rich, can be so secure. They em- 
brace special industries, while national debts are a 
claim upon every industry and a mortgage upon 
every foot of soil, and every dollar of present personal 
property, and of all that may be produced in the 
whole realm. 

If we express the world's indebtedness, the national 
debts, in the terms of our currency, as nearly as we 
can reduce the currency of other nations to such an 
expression, we find the national debts as follows, in 
1890: 

Denmark $ 33,004,722 

Great Britain 3,848,460,000 

United States 915,962,112 

Germany 1,956,217,017 

189 



190 Scriptural, Ethical and Econojnic View of Usury. 

Austria-Hungary $2,666,339,539 

France 4,446,793,398 

Russia 3,491,016,074 

Italy 2,324,826,329 

Spain 1,251,433,096 

Netherlands 430,539,653 

Belgium 360,504,099 

Sweden 64,220,807 

Norway 13,973,752 

Portugal 490,493,599 

Greece 107,306,518 

Turkey 821,000,000 

Switzerland 10,912,925 

These debts aggregate $22,955,386,008 

Hundreds of millions have been added to these 
national debts in the last ten years. Nearly every 
nation has increased its indebtedness, possibly no na- 
tion has decreased it, and others^ like China, with its 
recent great loan, and little Korea, with its twelve 
millions, must be added to the list. The debts of the 
nations of Europe have been increased until they now 
amount in the aggregate to twenty-three billions. 
The debts of the nations of all the world have in- 
creased one-half since 1890, and now aggregate 
thirty-three billions. 

These great national debts are practically perpetual, 
and though they may be at so low a rate of interest as 
three per cent., they' absorb the energies of the peo- 
ple, and, like a glacier grinding over the earth, crush 
all beneath them. 

Public debts are incurred to reHeve the present 
wealth of the burden of present duty. Debts place 
the whole burden on producers of the future. They 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 191 

relieve those who hold the wealth now, but are a draft 
upon those who make the wealth that is to be. 

An individual incurring debt places a mortgage 
upon his productions; by a pledge of future produc- 
tion he relieves himself of the strain of the present. 

A family incurs debt; a part of the members of 
the house are strong and capable of productive labor, 
and a part are not ; the whole burden of the payment 
comes upon the productive members of the home. 
The weak and helpless and the indolent, though 
strong, bear no part of the burden. This family has 
a home, and a mortgage is placed upon it to secure 
the present needs. The burden of paying the inter- 
est on this mortgage, and the final payment of the 
principal, is wholly on the capable and industrious 
members of the family. 

National debts are incurred to relieve the present 
wealth of the burden of present government calls and 
obligations, and to roll it upon those who shall pro- 
duce wealth in the future. So the debt of a city, 
state, or nation is a present reHef to property holders, 
by placing the producers under future obligations. 

A street in a city is to be paved ; no additional tax 
is levied ; but bonds are issued running twenty years. 

This relieves the present wealth of the burden, 
placing it upon those who shall produce the wealth 
that shall be in twenty years. 

The expenses of a great war must be met. Present 
taxes may be sHghtly increased, but to meet the bur- 



192 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

den consols or public bonds are issued to be paid 
at a distant date. This relieves the present wealth, 
but binds it upon those who shall be the producers 
of wealth in the generations to come. Hume says, 
"The practice of contracting debts will almost in- 
variably be abused by every government. It would 
scarcely be more imprudent to give a prodigal son a 
credit with every banker, than to empower statesmen 
to draw bills in this manner on posterity." 

These pubHc bonds are the golden opportunity of 
the usurers. Not only is their wealth relieved of all 
burden, but it affords an opportunity of profitable 
investment with the best possible debtor. They can 
pose as enterprising citizens, and urge great public 
improvements, and at the same time gain a most sure 
and profitable investment. They can pose as patriots 
in time of war, and urge that it be pressed with en- 
ergy at whatever cost of treasure and blood. It is 
not their blood that is shed, nor their wealth that is 
wasted. It gives them the opportunity of binding 
their burdens on the nation for the producers of the 
coming generations to carry. 

Usurers never wish public debts paid. They wish 
them issued for as long time as possible, and then re- 
issued, or the time extended before they are due. 
This is done by the figment called refunding, as if it 
were a concession and favor to a poor debtor. It is 
but a device to keep the burden on the public back. It 
is not a financial feat and triumph for the chancellor 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 193 

of the exchequer to refund a public debt. He but 
yields himself as a tool to the usurers to continue 
their loans. They resist the payment when due^ but 
when an officer is found willing to extend them before 
they are due all trouble is avoided and the accretions 
of interest are not interrupted for a day. 

Those who hold the bonds of a nation direct its 
destinies. The nation borrowing is servant to the 
lender, just as an individual. The nation compro- 
mises its freedom and becomes the slave of its bond* 
holders. The usurers use their power for the ad- 
vancement of their own material interests, and hold 
all other purposes of government as inferior to their 
own ends. This subordination of a people, to the 
creditors, is fatal to republican and constitutional 
governments; the form may be preserved for a time, 
but the substance of free government has departed. 

The concentration of wealth carries with it the con- 
centration of power, and is inimical to republican in- 
stitutions. A proper distribution of wealth and 
power must be preserved or popular government is 
put in jeopardy. 

The first bank of deposit and discount was the 
Bank of Venice, in the republic of Venetia. It con- 
tinued its existence for six hundred years, until the 
government that gave it life itself perished. From its 
long continuous business, and its success as a bank, 
it has been spoken of in every work on banking as 
a model. It began its association with the republic 



194 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

in 1171, and dominated it, sapping its life, and as- 
suming its functions, until the bank practically ruled 
the state, and when one fell both perished in 1797. 
The usurers received their hold on the state in a time 
of the greatest need. The republic had been im- 
poverished by the crusades, and was in dire financial 
straits. Advantage was taken of this by the usurers 
to so bind the bank and state together that when one 
lived the other must, or both must die together. 
Stock in the bank was a loan to the state at four per 
cent, annual interest. The union seemed to promise 
great prosperity for a time^ but really absorbed all 
the republic's vitality during the last hundred years 
of their life. 

Venetia was at the first a pure democracy. The 
Doge was elected by the people and administered 
the government, himself being the responsible head. 
He, later, chose advisers, or a cabinet, to be asso- 
ciated in the responsible duties. After this, and about 
the time of the association with the bank, a repre- 
sentative council was elected by the people, and the 
government was administered by the Doge and this 
council. This was gradually transformed from a 
government of the people to an oligarchy; and as 
the years passed there were no steps taken toward a 
return^ but the authority and power was more and 
more centralized. The ruling class was, in a hundred 
years, limited to those families enrolled in th** 
"Golden Book." In another hundred years the gov- 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 195 

ernment was in control of the "Council of Ten." 
Later the secret tribunal of three was the terror of the 
people and the instrument of their oppression. The 
republic was only such in name, the people were de- 
prived of all voice in the government, and the Doge 
became a puppet to obey the ruling cabal. 

Shakespeare went to Venice to find his typical 
usurer in Shylock the Jew. He found there also his 
typical Christian, Antonio. Antonio was a benevo- 
lent great soul, who loved his friends, supported all 
benevolences, and hated the usurers. Shylock hated 
liim because he would lend without interest, and was 
constantly reproving him for his usurious practice. 

The contest between the usurers and the people 
of the Venetian republic was a struggle for the life, 
but the usurers never relaxed their hold. They 
dominated until the end. 

Another great triumph of the usurers was in Eng- 
land at the time of great need. William and Mary 
had been placed upon the throne by the Protestants, 
but were in need of money to carry on the struggle 
for its complete establishment. This was the usurers' 
opportunity. Former kings, in like straits, had con- 
fiscated the wealth of the usurious Jews, Lombards 
and Goldsmiths, and appropriated their property as 
a penalty for their unchristian practice, but William 
and Mary entered into a contract with them to gain 
their assistance, giving them special privileges to 
secure a permanent loan. They were to loan the 



196 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

crown 1,200,000 pounds sterling. This was never to 
be repaid, but interest at the rate of eight per cent, 
per annum was to be paid forever. This loan was a 
marvel of success. There was a great rush of usurers 
to place their money with the crown as a perpetual 
loan at that rate of increase. Their usuries, which 
had hitherto been counted dishonest gain, were 
henceforth to be honorable, and they esteemed as 
patriots. 

Thus, the first Protestant power in the world was 
established in the hands of usurers, and bound to con- 
tinue associated with them forever. The story, by 
Macauley, of the establishment of the Bank of Eng- 
land, is familiar to all students of English history. 

This bank is a great corporation; the Board of 
Directors is composed of twenty-six members, who 
elect their own successors, and thus it is entirely in- 
dependent. It makes laws for its own direction in 
the name of the people or defies their control. In 
1797 it secured an order from the privy council or- 
dering itself to suspend specie payment. It obeyed 
its own order promptly, and at the same time an- 
nounced their strength and that the order would be 
temporary; but for one excuse and another it was 
continued for twenty-five years. 

Sir Robert Peel, in 1844, having become convinced 
of the dangerous and disastrous influence, expanding 
and contracting its loans, secured the enactment of 
a law to regulate and limit its circulation. This law 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 197 

was distasteful to the bank, and was, upon its enact- 
ment, defied by open disobedience. It has not only- 
dictated the laws for its own regulation, but directed 
both the domestic and the foreign policy of the gov- 
ernment. It has subordinated the public weal to 
financial profit. This corporation of usurers manage 
all the finances of the kingdom, and has more in- 
fluence than Crown and Parliament combined. As a 
great uncrowned king it dictates the diplomatic pol- 
icies of the United Kingdom. Its influence has not 
been extended to promote Protestant Christian faith^ 
Jews are not zealous for any Christian sect; nor for 
the purpose of lifting up the degraded and enlighten- 
ing them ; nor in the east has it exercised its power to 
relieve human suffering, but its diplomatic policy has 
been mercenary greed always. 

It should be noted that the enlightened Christian 
people of the United Kingdom are not the English 
government. There has been, for two hundred 
years, a power behind the Throne, behind Parliament, 
behind the people, essentially selfish and commer- 
cial. This has controlled India for profit, while the 
benevolent people were anxious to christianize and 
Uplift. It has befriended the Turk while England 
wept over the Turkish barbarities. It forced opium 
upon China while the Christian people sent mis- 
sionaries. The people of England love freedom^ yet 
the government has endeavored to crush it in the 
American colonies and everywhere throughout the 



198 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

world, when in conflict with a selfish commercial 
policy. The English people cry out against human 
slavery, yet in the struggle in the United States, when 
slavery was in the balance, the English government 
earnestly espoused the cause of those who upheld 
slavery. The English people rejoiced that the slave 
trade in Africa was abolished, yet the government en- 
acted the hut tax, and compels now the service of the 
young and vigorous blacks in the mines, sending 
them back to their people when their strength 
declines. 

In the establishment of the republic of the United 
States there was a strong resistance to any debt or 
subordination to usurers. The history of banks in 
the United States shows a struggle at the birth of 
the nation between the usurers, who demanded the 
management of the finances, and the people who re- 
sisted. This struggle continued for half a century, 
when the people triumphed, and for thirty years there 
was no hint of a purpose to overthrow what was 
regarded as the settled policy of the nation. 

The first bank was incorporated in 1791. Its estab- 
lishment was strongly resisted, but being urged by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, a charter was granted 
for twenty years. When that charter expired by 
limitation in 1811, there was a struggle by the usurers 
to secure its renewal, but they were defeated. They 
did not, however, abandon their effort. In 1816 they 
secured the charter of the second bank of the United 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 199 

States. This charter was also limited to twenty years, 
expiring in 1836. There was a tremendous struggle 
for its renewal, but the chief executive, backed by a 
strong political party, so completely defeated it that 
the usurers for the time yielded, and for thirty years 
the settled policy of the government forbade the alli- 
ance with usurers and the making of any public debt. 
Many of the leading statesmen of that period were 
very pronounced in their opposition. 

'The banking system concentrates and places the 
power in the hands of those who control it. 

"Never was an engine invented better calculated to 
place the destines of the many in the hands of the few, 
or less favorable to that equality and independence 
which lies at the bottom of our free institutions." — J. 
C. Calhoun. 

'T object to the continuance of this bank because 
its tendencies are dangerous and pernicious to the 
government and the people. It tends to aggravate 
the inequality of fortunes; to make the rich richer, 
and the poor poorer ; to multiply nabobs and paupers, 
and to deepen and widen the gulf that separates Dives 
from Lazarus." — Thomas H. Benton. 

"1 sincerely believe that banking establishments 
are more dangerous than standing armies. I am not 
among those who fear the people. They and not 
the rich are our dependence for continued freedom. 
And to preserve their independence, we must not let 



200 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

our rulers load us with perpetual debts." — Thomas 
Jefferson. 

''Events have satisfied my mind, and I think the 
minds of the American people, that the mischief and 
dangers which flow from a national bank far over- 
balance all its advantages." — Andrew Jackson. 

The usurers were compelled to remain under public 
condemnation during thirty years, as sentiment was 
strongly against them and conditions were not in 
their favor, but they did not relax their watchful 
effort nor abandon hope of ultimate success. When 
the nation was struggling to prevent its dissolution 
in 1861-5, and unusual war measures seemed neces- 
sary to meet the great emergency, the usurers saw 
their opportunity and came forward, as they did in 
Venice and England; they would loan the govern- 
ment the funds necessary to carry on the war, if the 
government would comply with their conditions and 
grant them the privileges demanded. They asked 
that their loan be perpetual, like the English loan; 
that they should be freed from the burdens of the 
government ; that their loan should be free from tax- 
ation; that they should receive their interest semi- 
annually, and not in the common legal tender, but in 
coin : that they be permitted to issue their own notes 
as currency to be loaned to their customers; that the 
government discredit its own issues and endorse 
theirs; and that they be given a monopoly by taxing 
out of existence all opposition. 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 201 

These were great demands, and were regarded as 
extortionate and oppressive. The struggle was se- 
vere, but the enemy in the field was threatening the 
life of the nation, while the usurers were urgent and 
posing as patriots, that they might accompHsh their 
ends. True patriots, anxious to defeat the enemy in 
arms, regarded these usurers at home as equally the 
enemies of freedom. They were in a strait betwixt 
two foes. 

Secretary McCullough said, "Hostility to the gov- 
ernment has been as decidedly manifested in the 
efiforts that have been made in the commercial 
metropoHs of the nation to depreciate the currency 
as has been by the enemy." 

The opposition to the usurers was very strong and 
bitter, but the conditions were in their favor and they 
gained a decided advantage. In the Senate the vote 
stood twenty-three yeas to twenty-one nays. It was 
carried only as a war measure. There was an efifort 
to limit the usurers' privileges to the war and one 
year after its close. This was not successful, but 
their loan was confined to the war debt, and their 
time to its payment, limited to twenty years. 

This action caused great distress and dark forbod- 
ings of evil to m.any of the thoughtful. It was setting 
aside the poHcy of the nation, which had been gen- 
erally acquiesced in as wise and judicious and safe for 
many years. The old patriot Thadeus Stevens, in the 
opening of a speech in a preliminary skirmish between 



202 Scripturalj Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

patriotism and usurers, said: "I approach the sub- 
ject with more depression of spirits than I ever before 
approached any -question. No personal motive or 
feeHng influences me. I hope not, at least. I have a 
melancholy foreboding that we are about to consum- 
mate a cunningly devised scheme, which will carry 
great injury and great loss to all classes of people 
throughout the Union, except one." Later he said, 
in excuse of the action, ''We had to yield, we did not 
yield until we found that the country must be lost 
or the banks gratified, and we have sought to save 
the country in spite of the cupidity of its wealthier 
classes." 

The usurers have never relaxed the hold they se- 
cured by this victory, and have since been continually 
increasing their power. They obtained an extension 
or ''refunding" of the war debt, and a renewal of their 
charters by the general laws, so their hold is indefin- 
itely extended. Bonds are no longer limited to the 
covering of war expenses, but are issued freely in 
times of peace. . The traditions of the fathers have 
been cast to the winds, and their fears derided and 
their policy changed. The usurers have been firmly 
in the saddle for many years, and have defeated every 
effort that has been made to unseat them. 

The great debts of the nations have brought all 
mankind into subjection to the usurers. Those who 
hold the bonds have the destinies of the race in their 
hands. They pervert the ends of government; the 



Mammon Dominates the Nations. 203 

protection of life, liberty and the highest good of 
all the people; they make governments their tools to 
gather and appropriate the earnings of the many. 

They have exalted Mammon upon the throne of 
the world, and scoff at the God of heaven, who seeks 
the poor and needy, and who would in love Hft up 
every son and daughter of the whole race. 

Milton presents Mammon as one of the devils cast 
out of heaven with Satan, and as saying in the council 
of the demons, ''What place can be found for us 
within heaven's bound, unless heaven's Lord we 
overpower? . . . How wearisome eternity so 
spent in worship paid, to one we hate." 

The reign of Mammon subordinates character and 
virtue and liberty and human life to sordid gain, yet 
he holds the scepter of power. 

He elects legislators and senators. He elects gov- 
ernors or directs their arrest if they refuse to obey 
him. He elects presidents and dictates their policies. 
He places kings on their thrones and holds them 
there while they do his bidding. He strips a Khedive 
of power, and yet retains him as a collector of rev- 
enue. He steadies the Sultan's tottering throne, and 
compels six great Christian powers to stand by in 
silence while humanity is outraged. The Armenian's 
blood must be permitted to flow because the persecu- 
tion is by a great servant, the Sultan, who pays in- 
terest on bonds, and his victims are only freemen. 
The murder of one hundred thousand Armenians 



204 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

meant nothing to Mammon. But when the Cretans 
were persecuted by the same Sultan, the suffering and 
bloodshed was soon ordered stopped by these same 
six powers, at Mammion's command. The Cretans 
were servants of the common master; the Cretan 
bonds were endangered. The cr}^ of suffering hu- 
manity came up to deaf ears, but the cry of endan- 
gered bonds was heard from afar by this reigning 
god of wealth. 

The little republics of Africa were freemen, and 
therefore Mammon sees them strangled with indiffer- 
ence. Mammon gathers the civilized nations around 
China and demands that she shall be enslaved by all 
the bonds she can safely carry or submit to vivisection 
and distribution. 

This enslavement of the race is not by the destroy- 
ing of intelligence, nor by denying the first principles 
of civil liberty, nor by crushing the aspirations for 
freedom, but by producing conditions that make the 
application of these principles and the exercise of 
freedom impossible. Though the race may increase 
in intelligence and theoretically have correct views of 
personal freedom and civil liberty, yet the conditions 
produced necessarily by usury utterly prevent their 
realization. The intelligence and aspirations of the 
race never were higher than at present, their subjec- 
tion and subordination to material wealth was never 
more complete. 



Mmnmon Dominates the Nations. 205 

The scepter wherein lies Mammon's power to 
sway the nations is usury. When bonds bear no in- 
crease his sovereignty is gone. All motive to involve 
the nation in debt at once disappears, and the power 
to control is lost. Moses' law was divinely wise that 
forbade interest, that his people could not be enslaved 
and might remain a free people forever. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 
EFFECT ON CHARACTER. 

The greatest factor in life in all ages is not material 
wealth, nor social position, nor genius, nor education, 
but character. Since man is above things, the high- 
est purpose is not the gathering of that beneath him, 
but the developing of the best and noblest that is 
in him. 

The highest possible purpose and work is the de- 
veloping of virtuous manhood. 

This was the thought of our fathers when they 
came to these shores and built their homes and estab- 
lished the free institutions which wc now enjoy. 
They sacrificed material advantages that they might 
be free men and secure for themselves and for their 
children the opportunity to reach in faith and prac- 
tice the ideal manhood. 

No material advantage can be regarded with favor 
that is detrimental to the characters of men. Posi- 
tion, wealth, education, are worse than worthless 
when associated with a corrupted manhood. 

"Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, 
Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." 

The test of truth is its developing of the virtues 
and graces. Falsehood is detected by its quickening 
206 



Effect on Character. 207 

the vices that degrade and destroy. "By their fruits 
shall ye know them." 

Virtues are linked together so that the promoting 
of one gives strength to the others. All vices are also 
so linked that the stimulating of one quickens other 
vices. 

Virtues and vices are opposite, so that the encour- 
aging of a vice or fault discourages the opposing 
virtue. When you discourage a virtue, you encour- 
age a vice. 

The old-fashioned virtues which our fathers prized, 
and which they regarded essential elements of worthy 
manhood, were industry, and honesty, and self- 
reliance, and brotherly sympathy, and the devout 
recognition of God's divine sovereignty. 

1. Usury discourages industry and encourages 
idleness. The laborer is stirred to diligence when he 
gets good wages. When his wages are meager he be- 
comes discouraged, relaxes his efforts and may aban- 
don his work altogether. When he knows that he is 
receiving less than he is earning, and that a part of 
his earnings are appropriated by another, he is em- 
bittered and becomes indifferent. When he receives 
all he earns, and the more diligent he is in his work 
the more he receives, he is stimulated to the utmost. 

This will be especially true if it is made impossible 
to secure a gain without earning it. The benefit of 
full wages may be largely lost by the knowledge of 



208 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

persons who, without productive effort, are appro- 
priating the earnings of others. The influence of 
their easy, indolent Hves may destroy or counteract 
the beneficent influence of good wages. The laborer 
may be led to despise his well-paid tasks and yearn for 
their ease, and thus become indolent. 

One is encouraged to idleness when he discovers 
that he can secure his bread by the sweat of another's 
face. He is likely to relax his efforts if he does not 
forsake all personal productive occupations. He may 
give great care and the closest attention to the 
management of his wealth, loaning to others and col- 
lecting the increase, but not to productive industry. 

There are activities that look like virtues, but they 
are perverted efforts. The slave-driver may work as 
hard as the slave in his efforts to appropriate the earn- 
ings of others. The thief may work in the night and 
endure more hardness to secure the property of an- 
other than would be necessary to honestly earn it. 
The usurer may give his thought, night and day, to 
the placing of his wealth the most securely and at 
the best rates of interest, and at the same time aban- 
don all effort in the direct management of useful 
productive enterprises. 

The complete result of usury upon the habit of in- 
dustry can be realized in those who have grown up 
under its influence ; those who have an income secure 
from invested funds. When there is no need, present 
nor prospective, there is no motive to active industry. 



Effect on Character. 209 

and the love of ease and pleasure grows and drives 
out all heart for productive effort. 

The industrious habit coupled with economy is 
called thrift. It is not parsimony or unwillingness to 
give, but a disposition to save. Our Lord, who was 
the prince of givers and inculcated unlimited giving 
among his followers, gave a lesson in thrift when he 
said after his miracle, ''Gather up the fragments, that 
nothing be lost." 

Enforced industry and economy is not thrift. 
When by low wages or grinding conditions the neces- 
sities of life are with difficulty secured, the very op- 
posite disposition may be cultivated. When the ex- 
ternal restraints are removed, the wildest extrava- 
gance may be indulged in. This is sometimes given 
as an excuse for low, grinding wages ; that ''the work- 
men and their wives have no idea of saving;" that 
higher wages would be wasted in foolish extrava- 
gance. 

No one in normal conditions will be wasteful of 
that which has cost him hard labor. His care for it 
will naturally be in proportion to the efifort that was 
necessary to secure it. Those who waste the wealth 
of the world are not those who by the sweat of their 
faces have produced it. The habit of thrift comes 
from the knowledge of the value of a thing, learned 
by earning it. Only that which comes without effort 
will be spent without thought. Those who have liv- 
ings secured from the increase or interest of "pro- 



210 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

ductive" capital, having no need of industry, are 
wholly occupied with the spending; but in spending 
only, the value of the thing spent is not appreciated, 
the habit of extravagance grows and they become 
the idlers and the spendthrifts of the world. 

2. It prevents open and frank honesty. When 
the thought is turned to an endeavor to secure a dol- 
lar that is not earned, there is secretiveness of purpose 
and inward guile. No person doing business on bor- 
rowed capital advertises the number and amount of 
his loans nor does he welcome inquiry by others. In 
a column of advertisements by money lenders in a 
newspaper lying on this table every one promises 
''privacy" or ''no publicity." No one can be so open 
and frank as the one who earns every dollar that he 
receives or seeks. 

The possibility of speculation is ruinous. The first 
step in the wreck of integrity in a young man's char- 
acter is when he becomes absorbed in some scheme 
by which he can secure gain without honestly earn- 
ing it. Lotteries are outlaws not only because they 
defraud but they undermine integrity and honest 
industry. 

When property earns property, and the gain is 
secured with no struggle on his part, the temptation 
is presented and the disintegration of his character 
has begun. When there is no gain except by pro- 
duction, the whole thought and energy of the man 
is directed to that end, and his desire to secure that 



Eifect on Character. 211 

earned by another is restrained. The frank, open dis- 
position is preserved. Honest productive toil drives 
out the spirit of speculation. Under usury, both 
lender and borrower are in the attitude of expectants 
of unearned gain. 

3. It discourages the spirit of self-reliance. 

Usury causes a broad separation between a man 
of property and the man of mere muscle or brain. It 
makes such large combinations of capital possible in 
inmiense shops and department stores and other en- 
terprises, that the individual workman is belittled. 
Under the principle of usury, property can produce 
as well as brain or muscle. One having property can 
control both. 

His property places him in a position as a superior. 
He comes to forget the relations he bears to men as 
equals, and requires that those who have only their 
natural gifts shall be cringing supplicants before him 
or be denied his favor. The borrower or the laborer 
who asserts his rights is endangered by the man con- 
trolling propert}^, who has him in his power. 

That independent, self-reliant spirit, that looks 
every man in the face as an equal yet lingers in the 
country among the hills and mountains, but is fast 
disappearing from the city. There has come to the 
laborer in the town or city a feeling of dependence 
upon others and a desire to secure their favor. They 
almost feel that they must apologize for being labor- 
ers, and beg for an opportunity to earn a living in 



212 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

some one's employ. One of the saddest facts, and 
most threatening of disaster in these present com- 
mercial conditions, is the common desire to be em- 
ployed, to get a job, dependent on the whim of an- 
other, instead of a determination to direct one's own 
labor and be the manager of one's own business. The 
sound educational development is wanting in the 
daily occupation of the hired laborer, and there is a 
loss of manhood that has no compensation. 

The independent spirit slips away so gradually that 
its going is scarcely noticed, but when once gone the 
degradation is complete. 

A family of free Hebrews went down into Egypt, 
and for a long time was in favor with the rulers, but 
they gradually lost their independence and became 
more and more servile and cringing until the 
Egyptian masters dared to go into their homes and 
pick up their boy babies and take them out and drown 
them as if they were worthless puppies. 

The hopelessness of the Ottoman Empire today is 
more in the cringing subordination and broken spirit 
of the people than in the oppression of the Sultan. 
His govertiment might be overthrown in a day, but 
it would take ages to lift up that empire of prostrate 
slaves and to cultivate in them the self-assertion and 
self-reliance necessary to a free people. 

Every man who loves his country and his race must 
view with alarm this growing feeling of subordination 
and cringing disposition. It is the very reverse of 



Eifect on Character. 213 

that democratic spirit or consciousness of equality 
that must prevail to secure the permanency of our 
republican institutions. 

4. It destroys fraternal sympathy. Two classes 
are found in every modern community. The one is 
the laborers with muscle or brain, the other class, 
those whose property produces for them. Between 
these classes there is a great wall fixed. It cannot be 
expected that they will mingle harmoniously and be 
in sympathy in civil and social relations. Producing 
and non-producing classes can never be congenially 
associated. 

The question is frequently discussed in church 
circles, "How can the laboring man be attracted to 
the churches?" The discussion often presumes that 
the non-laboring man does find the church congenial. 
If he does, all efforts to win the other class will be in 
vain. The church itself needs to correct its teachings 
and reform its spirit. 

The moral law commands "Six days shalt thou 
work," and there is no release because a man has 
property. So long as a man has brain or brawn he 
is bound by that law. If he is not, he is not a moral 
man, and has no rightful place in the church of God. 
Honest, upright, industrious Christian men, engaged 
in all lines of production for human needs, may be 
congenial and co-operate most harmoniously, but 
they never can be made comfortable in association 



^14 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

with those who are unproductive and idle, yet Hving 
in luxury. 

5. Usury promotes that '^Covetousness which is 
idolatry." 

''As heathens place their confidence in idols, so 
doth the avaricious man place his confidence in silver 
and gold. The covetous person, though he doth not 
indeed believe his riches or his money to be God_, yet 
by so loving and trusting in them, as God alone 
ought to be loved and trusted in, he is as truly guilty 
of idolatry as if he so believed." 

Idolatry is the act of ascribing to things or persons 
properties that are peculiar to God. The principal 
objects of worship are those things which bring to 
men the greatest good. 

The sun has been the most general object of idol- 
atrous worship in all the ages. It is the most con- 
spicuous object, and is the source of light and heat, 
and rules the seasons. Its worship was so general that 
the Hebrew people, when they lapsed from the wor- 
ship of God, turned to the worship of the sun or Baal. 
No natural object is more worthy of worship. Job 
declaring his integrity and freedom from idolatry, 
said that he had not kissed his hand in salute of the 
sun in his rising. 

The river Nile was an object of idolatrous worship 
for ages. Its source was a mystery, and its annual 
rise in its rainless valley was so beneficent, that it was 
given the worship which belonged to the Divine 



Effect on Character. 215 

alone. All the hope of the harvest depended on its 
annual overflow. It moistened and fertilized and pre- 
pared the ground, and then receded until the harvest 
was grown and gathered. Moses showed the 
Egyptians the impotence of their idols by making 
this chief idol, and the things that came out of it, a 
curse. The cow was worshiped because it was the 
most useful and necessary of their animals. A real or 
supposed power to give or withhold favors has been 
from the beginning the source and spring of idolatry. 

Riches, property, as the means of supplying our 
needs, is an object more coveted than any other. The 
principle of usury greatly aggravates this tendency." 
The principle of usury makes it imperishable; it can 
be perpetuated, unimpaired from year to year and 
from age to age ; it is a constant source of benefit ; it 
is productive of all that is necessary to supply human 
needs. 

It supplies, too, without effort on the part of the 
recipient. The sun, with his light and heat, makes 
the labor of the farmer successful. The rising Nile 
moistening and fertilizing the land, prepares the way 
for the sower. The cow draws the plow and the har- 
row, and threshes the grain, but usury makes prop- 
erty bring all needed material good without effort 
on the part of the owner. It brings him the matured 
fruits of the farm, though he neither plows or sows 
nor reaps. No labor on his part is needed. His 
property clothes and feeds him, and yet does not 



216 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

grow less, but is endowed with perpetual youth, ever 
giving yet never exhausted or diminished. He may 
die, but his idol knows no decay, and may continue 
to bless his children through the generations. This 
quality of riches makes them a greater source of 
blessing than the sun or any other object of idol- 
atrous worship. This leads to unHmited self-denial 
and sacrifice to gain and retain property. The de- 
votees subordinate their own ease and physical com- 
fort, their own intellectual development, to secure it, 
they will themselves shrivel in body and soul; like 
other idolaters they will even yield the highest inter- 
ests of their children, when this idol demands their 
sacrifice. 

6. It destroys spirituality. Property is matter 
and not spirit. With the thought and heart and 
effort directed to a material thing, the spirit is 
neglected. The heathen Greek artist directed his 
whole attention to the material part of man. The 
symmetry of the human physical form was his study. 
The perfect man was the most symmetrically de- 
veloped specimen of physical form. His thought of 
man was matter. The Christian directs his thought 
to the spirit, his mind and heart, his noble purposes, 
and all the qualities of true manhood. The material 
part is subordinated to the spiritual. 

The tendency now is to appreciate a man for what 
he has rather than for what he is, to ignore both sym- 
metry of form and the graces of the noble character, 



Effect on Character. 217 

and to worship what he holds in his hands. The 
truly spiritual loves true manhood and is indifferent 
to the possessions. 

If a noble soul is found in a Lazarus, the true child 
of Abraham will take him to his bosom. A perverted 
manhood will receive no favor though clothed and 
surrounded with all material splendor. 

It destroys spirituaHty, too, because it holds the 
mind to a material thing as the source of all good. 
The spiritual man rises to the true source of our 
blessings, the author of all temporal good, from 
whose hand every living thing is fed. 

This, as all idolatry, leads to a breaking away from 
the restraints of the moral law. The devotion to the 
material leads, logically and practically, to a neglect 
of the restraints of the spiritual, and a preponderance 
of subserviency to the material. Practices that will 
promote the material are indulged though the moral 
law may be broken. The material is not held sub- 
ject to the needs of the higher nature, nor subject to 
the promotion of the kingdom of God, but man's 
noblest gifts and the worship of God are all made, 
if possible, to minister to the material interests. 

To break this idol's power, the true nature of prop- 
erty must be shown. It is not immortal, but perish- 
able. It can not preserve itself, but must be carefully 
preserved by man's own effort. It can not protect 
him, but he must protect it. It is but a thing which 
man has himself made. It must be shown absurd, as 



218 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

Isaiah ridiculed it, "They worship the work of their 
own hands, that which their own fingers have made." 

Other forms of gross external idolatry are exposed 
by the advancing light of these progressive years, 
but this musty old form has taken new life and now 
receives the service of the race. The whole world 
is running pell-mell after this idol. It stands in the 
market places, it is not a stranger in the courts of 
justice, and is in high favor in legislative halls. Solon 
is relegated and Croesus is elected. 

It is given a high place in the temple of God. Pious 
Lazarus is neglected but Dives is promoted. 

"What agreement hath the temple of God with 
idols?" 

Until this idol is cast out the church will and must 
languish. Spiritual life will be low and fervor im- 
possible. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 
AX AT ROOT OF THE TREE. 

It is easier to cut down an evil tree than to climb 
up and lop off it branches; besides the branches will 
grow again if the stock is left undisturbed. It is 
easier to destroy the mother of vipers than it is to 
chase after, catch and kill her poisonous progeny. 
The reptiles will not become extinct while the mother 
is left to breed without restraint. There are a large 
number of industrial and financial evils that derive 
their strength from usury, which have received the 
close attention of benevolent reformers, but they 
have not exposed the cause, nor have they suggested 
a sufficient remedy. That the evils exist is apparent 
to them all, but they seem too high to reach or too 
swih to be caught. 

It is only possible to hint at the prevailing evils in 
one chapter. It would require a volume to discuss 
them in detail and to apply the remedy. 

1. There is a tendency to divergence in the ma- 
terial and financial conditions of men. Some are 
growing richer, while others are growing poorer. 

The prayer of Agur, '-Give me neither poverty nor 
riches," is the prayer we should offer and the prayer 
we should try ourselves to answer. We are to seek 
freedom from poverty on the one hand and from 

219 



220 ScripHiral, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

ensnaring riches on the other. This is the condition 
we should try to secure in the community and in the 
commonwealth. We should discourage excess of 
riches and we should endeavor to relieve all of dis- 
tressing poverty. We should hedge about accumu- 
lation with such conditions as to make it very difficult 
to gain great wealth, and at the same time we should 
so ease the conditions of accumulation that only 
gross indolence or great misfortune could cause 
dependent poverty. 

The so called middle class are those who neither 
have great riches nor yet are they in fear of want. 
The great mass of our people belonged to this class 
until very recent times. Now we find the excessively 
rich have multiplied and a vast number of our indus- 
trious, honest and virtuous population are struggling 
for life's necessities. The middle class is less numer- 
ous while both those in opulence and those in poverty 
have been increasing. 

We should level up and level down to the medium 
which is best for the development of the highest man- 
hood and best also for the strength and perpetuity of 
our republican institutions. 

The rich should be limited in their accretions while 
the poor are lifted out of their poverty ; but how can 
this be accomplished without interfering with individ- 
ual liberty and our personal rights? The problem is 
not easily solved. While usury remains, which is an 
ever active centralizing force adding wealth to wealth. 



Ax at the Root of the Tree. 221 

no remedy can be found. Do away with usury, and 
the evil is overcome. 

(a) When it is recognized that vital energy alone 
produces all wealth, no great fortune can be gathered 
in the life time of one man. The earnings of any Hfe, 
however long, or the earnings of a succession of in- 
dustrious, energetic ancestors, could not amass a for- 
tune to interfere with the rights and activities of 
others. 

One may inherit a large fortune from wealthy kin- 
dred ; he may discover a fortune; he may draw a grand 
prize in a lottery ; he may as a Turk seize the proper- 
ties of others and then bribe the courts to confirm 
his claims ; or a people may be "held up" by law and 
one, selfish and conscienceless as a ghoul, may jump at 
the opportunity and appropriate their earnings and 
their property and yet the robber keep out of the peni- 
tentiary; but no one^ however great his skill or bril- 
liant his genius, can earn one milHon dollars, nor the 
tenth of it, in his natural life. To gain one million dol- 
lars one must earn twenty thousand dollars each year 
for fifty years and save it all. He must spend nothing 
for pleasure nor benevolence. He must spend noth- 
ing for food nor for clothes. 

(b) Wealth decays unless cared for and preserved. 
As wealth increases, the task of protecting and pre- 
serving it increases. There comes a time when pro- 
duction must cease, and all energy will be required 
to preserve that already gained. When others pre- 



222 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

serve and pay a price for the privilege, as in usury, 
the vital energy can continue production, indefinitely. 

(c) Abolish usury and the instant one ceases to 
produce he begins to consume that which he has 
earned. He can not live upon the increase of his 
earnings, but he must begin at once to diminish the 
supply. Exacting usury he may consume only the 
increase and preserve the principal untouched. He 
may not consume all the increase and add the re- 
mainder to his capital and thus grov^ richer in decrepit 
age. Many of those who have not inherited wealth, 
have not been wealthy until advanced age. It came 
to them by the accretions of interest after the pro- 
ductive period of life was past. 

(d) It is not possible to secure perfect equality of 
conditions. If all wealth was equally distributed 
today differences would begin to appear tomorrow. 
This has seemed to some disheartening and they 
abandon all hope of correcting the evil. They should 
look deeper and promote the natural and God- 
ordained remedy. 

The natural force for the preservation of the level 
of the ocean is gravity. But the surface is seldom 
smooth. The winds lash it into fury and pile high 
its waves, but gravity pulling upon every drop of 
v/ater tends to draw it back to its place and smooth 
down the surface again. The Vv^nd cannot build per- 
m.anently a mountain of water in the ocean. 



Ax at the Root of the Tree. 223 

The consumption and decay of wealth tends un- 
endmgly to equahze the conditions of men. In the 
wild rush of the struggle for supremacy and gain, 
like a whirlwind in the affairs of men, with their di- 
verse gifts and tastes and plans, there will be in- 
equalities appearing, but consumption and inevitable 
decay are ever present leveling powers. Usury sus- 
pends this beneficent law and aggravates the evil, 
making the differences in condition permanent and 
increasing them. 

Do away with usury and there is a natural limita- 
tion to riches. The rich will find that he can not grow 
constantly richer; not because he is by statute de- 
prived of any personal rights, but he is hindered by 
the natural law embedded in things by the Creator. 

Do away with usury and the problem of poverty 
is solved. If we credit vital energy with the increase 
of wealth and give the laborer all he earns, he has a 
fair and equal chance, and equity requires no more. 
It is justice and opportunity, a fair chance, that the 
poor need, not pity and gifts of charity. 

2. Great combines of capital in business and es- 
pecially in industrial trusts are receiving the closest 
attention of the thoughtful. Some regard them as 
the necessary result of successful and enlarging busi- 
ness. Many others regard them as hostile to the pub- 
lic good and are anxiously seeking a means of re- 
straining their great and increasing power. 



224 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

These were at the first associations of manufac- 
turers who co-operated to maintain prices. In the 
competitive system there is a constant pressure on 
the part of the consumer for lower prices. The manu- 
facturer who is conscientious and a model employer, 
seeking to maintain prices sufficiently high to afford 
him a profit and living wages for his employes, must 
ever be resisting this pressure. They united for this 
purpose and were benevolent and just in their design. 
But the manufacturers were paying tribute on bor- 
rowed capital. They must micet the demands of 
interest on their debts and also the wages of their 
workmen. Between these two they struggled to 
secure for themselves comfortable wages. The 
capitalists, seeing the advantage of this co-operation 
and the resultant profits, undertook and accomplished 
the combination of their capital to secure for them- 
selves the profits at first sought for the operators and 
their employes. 

These great combines are the natural result of suc- 
cessful business with the practice of usury. They 
threaten evil. 

The purpose and plan of the present trust is 
to increase the increase of the capital; to make the 
capital more productive;" to bring larger returns 
for the wealth invested. 

(a) They are not organized for the benefit of the 
laborer. The object is to decrease the cost by produc- 
ing with lees labor. The less the labor, other things 



Ax at the Root of the Tree. 225 

being equal, the greater the returns for the capital in- 
vested. 

(h) They are not organized for the benefit of the 
consumer. When they do favor the consumer it is 
only incidental and generally temporary to meet com- 
petition. They make no pretence of being benevolent 
in their purposes. They are organized for the pur- 
pose of business gain. 

(c) These capitalists combine their interests be- 
cause they can thereby secure a greater return from 
their investments than they can by operating sepa- 
rately. They combine that they may mutally in- 
crease the rate of interest or dividends on their capi- 
tal. This is the motive that draws them into coopera- 
tion. 

The learned and benevolent statesmen, teachers of 
economy and reformers, have not suggested an ade- 
quate remedy. The remedy is not far to find. Do 
away with usury and they will fall apart like balls of 
sand; the cohesive power will be gone; the cen- 
tralization will cease and the wealth will speedily re- 
turn to the various individuals from whom it was 
gathered. This remedy may seem heroic, but it is 
a vSpecific and is the simplest of all possible methods. 

3. How to secure a just distribution of the great 
advantages from improved machinery, new inven- 
tions and new discoveries, is a problem that is en- 
gaging the best thought of many of the wise and 
good. That the present distribution is inequitable 



226 Scriptitralj Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

and unfair; that it gives the capitalist an undue advan- 
tage over the laborer ; that it aggravates the difference 
in conditions, seems generally admitted. 

An improved machine, owned by a capitalist, en- 
ables one man to do the work that formerly required 
ten. One man is employed and the nine are in com- 
petition for his place and there is no advance over the 
wages before the machine was introduced. The 
owner of the machine secures the gain. His wealth 
is greatly increased while the laborer plods on with 
his old wages. With the new machine the one man 
produces what ten men did before, but the product 
of the nine are credited to the machine and becomes 
the capitalist's gain. 

(a) The falsehood on which this claim rests must 
be seen and rejected before the evil can be overcome; 
that the machine is productive. It is but a tool in the 
hands of the one man, who now with it produces as 
much as ten men did without it. If one does the 
work of ten he earns the reward of ten. Because by 
this machine he multiplies his strength, and adds to 
his efficiency, he can not justly be deprived of his full 
reward. 

(b) "But the machine is owned by another." His 
not owning the machine does not change its nature 
and make it a productive force. Whether it belongs 
to him or to another, it is his intelligent vital energy 
that produces all that is produced. The machine is 
but his tool with which he works. 



Ax at the Root of the Tree. 227 

(c) "But the machine must be paid for." Cer- 
tainly, the inventors and skilled mechanics, who pro- 
duced this wonderful tool, should be fully compen- 
sated, but once paid they have no claim upon it or on 
v/hat another may produce with it. No honest work- 
man objects to paying a good price for good tools. It 
is not the purchase of tools by one set of workmen of* 
another that causes the unequal conditions. 

(d) It is the usurer or interest taker that perverts 
the conditions. 

He lays hold of those great inventions and discov- 
eries, like railroads and telegraphs and telephones, 
and demands a perpetual compensation. He asks that 
the laborer shall be forever buying his tool, yet it 
shall be never bought, that the public shall be forever 
paying for privileges and the obligation remain for- 
ever unmet. This is but one of the forms of usury, 
by which wealth is heaped from the earnings of the 
many. 

4. The difficulties between employers and their 
laborers do not cease. The continued strikes and 
lock-outs show how general and deep the trouble is. 
Laborers organize into unions to protect themselves 
from discharge and to promote their interests. They 
ask for better wages and shorter hours. They urge 
their petition with forceful arguments; they make 
demands with an implied threat; they stop work or 
"strike." Then follows a test of strength and endur- 



228 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury, 

ance in which both parties greatly suffer and both are 
embittered and neither is satisfied. 

The correction of this common evil has received 
close study from those who have the welfare of all 
classes at heart and wish to be benefactors of the race. 
The remedies have not been thorough but superficial, 
and the benefits temporary. The branches have been 
cut off but they grow again. 

(a) The complaint of too small wages implies that 
more is earned than is received ; but there is no stan- 
dard recognized by which what a man does earn can 
be measured. The capitalist claims the output as the 
earnings of his capital and his claim is allowed by 
the workmen. The workmen may claim that wages 
are too small for a comfortable living. This is not 
a plea of free workmen, but of slaves begging to be 
better fed. 

(h) They may complain of too many hours of 
labor; but the number of hours of labor is arbitrarily 
fixed. There is no valid constant reason why one 
should wish to work less. In the management of 
one's own work, and the collection of his own earn- 
ings, there are times when long hours, of the strain of 
labor, are necessary, and there are other times when 
ease can be taken. With no standard of earnings or 
time, it is impossible to arrive at a just and satisfactory 
settlement. 

The reasons given sound to the employers Hke the 
pleadings of servants for richer food and more play. 



Ax at the Root of the Tree. 229 

(c) The laborer should find a solid basal reason 
for his demands. That will be found only in the utter 
rejection of the theory and practice of usury. 

The selfishness of human nature will remain; con- 
flicts between men in all conditions and all businesses 
will remain ; feuds and rivalries will remain ; but when 
employer and employe are enabled to see that capital 
is dead, and decaying, and that all the earnings above 
its preservation belong to the laborers, there will be 
a recognized and true basis upon which the rightful 
claims of each can be adjusted. 

(d) In a co-operative shop, where the workmen 
are the owners, each receives his share of the gains. 
With usury done away it is possible for workmen, 
who are poor, to ultimately become the owners, by 
the accumulation of earnings, but under the pull of 
the usurers, continually appropriating the earnings, 
they are doomed to hopeless poverty. 

5. There is a widespread determination to over- 
come the evil of war. Non-combatants are numer- 
ous and peace societies are organized in all lands. 
Their literature is widely distributed and their peti- 
tions, for the preservation of peace, are poured upon 
every "power" that is thought to have an occasion, 
or a disposition,, to engage in warfare. The waste of 
treasure and blood, the cruelties and suffering that 
are a military necessity, are pleaded in favor of peace. 
The shame of intelligent rational men settling differ- 
ences with brute force is presented. 



230 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

The unchristian spirit, that in this age of light and 
saving grace should be so wanting in brotherly love 
as to wish to destroy those who harm us, is depre- 
cated. 

When differences do arise between nations, they 
urge a just settlement or mutual concessions. Or if 
one is found to be unreasonable, unjust and oppres- 
sive, it is better and more christian-like, they claim, to 
endure hardness, submitting under protest, than by 
force, which the Master forbade, attempt to establish 
righteousness. 

Rulers of the greatest nations on the earth have be- 
come conscious of the cruel burdens upon their peo- 
ple, in the support of their great armaments. On the 
invitation of the Czar of Russia, peace commissioners 
from many nations recently met in The Hague, to 
devise means by which the burdens of armaments 
might be diminished and actual warfare avoided. 
This peace council advised that differences be sub- 
mitted to arbitration, but while it was yet speaking 
two Christian powers, began open war, without hav- 
ing so "decent a regard to the opinions of mankind" 
as to make known to the world the cause of their con- 
flict. Wars continue, and among the most highly 
civilized and enlightened and christianized, in the 
face of the arguments and advice and pleadings of 
non-combatants and peace societies and peace com- 
missions. 

Mammon, a sordid greed of gain, is now on the 



Ax at the Root ol the Tree. 281 

world's throne and directs the movements of the na- 
tions in peace or war. 

His purposes may be often accomplished in peace 
by purchases of territory for which interest bearing 
bonds are issued. The irritation or hurts between 
peoples may be molified and healed by indemnities, 
which also serve his purpose because they necessitate 
the incurring of a bonded debt, interest bearing. 
But the history of the world for centuries proves that 
a condition of war is Mammon's opportunity to foist 
a debt upon a free people and to increase the burden 
of those whose bonds he already holds. 

His ears are deaf to advice and reason, when ma- 
terial and commercial advantages are to be secured. 
He cares not for human suffering and shed blood, if 
riches can be increased. When concessions can be 
secured, and mortgages placed, and a people exploit- 
ed with profit, the cry of suffering, the pleading for 
pity and the call for justice are all in vain. 

To stop these modern wars they must be made un- 
profitable to Mammon. When they are made to de- 
plete his treasury and to waste his wealth, instead of 
increasing it, he will call a halt in strife, and the gentle 
spirit of peace will be permitted to hover over the na- 
tions. 

Away with national debts and interest bearing 
bonds, which are the delight of the usurers. Make 
present wealth bear the burden of present duty. Try 
the patriotism of the usurers by making war a real 



232 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

sacrifice of their wealth, while the blood of others is 
being poured upon the field. Do not permit war to 
be an advantage to the rich to increase his riches. 
A patriot's life is giv^n and it goes out forever, let 
wealth be no more sacred than life; let it not be 
borrowed but consumed. Let the rich grow poorer 
as the war goes on, let there be a facing of utter pov- 
erty, as the patriot faces death on the field. 

While Mammon is permitted this usury, his chief 
tool, he will use it for the oppression of the world. 
He will direct the movements among the nations to 
further his ends, although it may require a conflict be- 
tween the most christianized and enlightened of the 
earth. The nations will be directed in peace or put 
in motion in war to make wealth increase. 

Give wealth its true place as a perishable thing, in- 
stead of a productive life, and wars will cease in all 
the earth. The holders of the wealth of the world 
will never urge nor encourage war, when the property 
destroyed is their own and not to be replaced. When 
wars are no longer the usurer's opportunity, but the 
consumption of his wealth. Mammon himself will beg 
that swords may be beaten into plow-shares and 
spears into pruning-hooks. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 
PER CONTRA; CHRISTIAN APOLOGISTS. 

Every argument favoring the continuance of the 
practice of usury can be met from the propositions 
established in the preceding chapters. Indeed, there 
are no true arguments to be presented in its favor. 
Truth is consistent with truth. We are not placed 
in a dilemma and compelled to decide which are the 
strongest of the arguments arrayed against each 
other. We are not deciding which is the greater of 
two blessings nor which the less of two evils, but this 
is a question of evil or good, of sin or righteousness. 
If usury is wrong then every argument brought for- 
ward to support it is a falsehood, though it may be 
covered with a very beautiful and attractive and plaus- 
ible form in its presentation. 

1. The old Wilson Catechism published in Dun- 
dee in 1Y37 is perhaps the most familiar defense. 

"Q. Is the gaining of money by usury unlawful? 

"A. Yes, Prov. 28: 8. Psalm 15: 5. 

"Q. What is usury? 

"A. The taking unlawful profit for money that is lent out. 

"Q. Is it lawful to take any interest or gain for money lent? 

"A. Yes, when it is taken according to the laws of the land, 
and from these who make gain by it, by trading or purchasing 
of lands; seeing it is equally just for the owner of money to ask 
a share of the profit which others make by it, as for the owner 

233 



234 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

of the land to demand farm from the tenant of it, money being 
improvable by art and labor as well as land. 

"Q. What is the unlawful profit for money, which may be 
called usury? 

"A. The taking profit for money from the poor who borrow 
for mere necessity, or taking needful things from them in pawn 
for it; or the taking more profit for any than law allows, as these 
who take ten, fifteen, or twenty in the hundred. Exod. 22 : 25, 
26. Deut. 24: 12, 17. Ezek. 18: 7, 8. 

"Q. But were not the people of Israel discharged to take 
any usury or profit for lent money from their brethren? Deut. 
23: 19. 

"A. This law seems to have been peculiar to the Jewish 
state, and that in regard of their estates being so divided, set- 
tled, and secured to their families by the year jubilee, and their 
not being employed in trading or making purchases like other 
nations, so that they had no occasion to borrow money but for 
the present subsistence of their families. But for strangers, 
who had another way of living, the Israelites were allowed to 
lend upon usury, and to share with them in their profits, Deut. 
23: 20, which shows that the taking of interest is not oppressive 
in itself; for they are frequently prohibited to oppress a stranger, 
and yet allowed to take usury from him. Exod. 22:21, and 
23:9." 

The reader will notice that the definition of usury 
is defective. The reader will also notice that there 
are no Scripture references given to prove that any 
interest can be taken. This is singular, since through- 
out the Catechism Scripture references are profuse in 
confirmation of the answers. If a single passage had 
been found that could be twisted into an approval the 
reference would have been given. He rests the per- 
mission to take usury wholly on human reason, 
though in direct opposition to the Scripture refer- 



Per Contra; Christian Apologists. 236 

ences he had first given to prove that the gaining 
of wealth by usury was unlawful. He does not claim 
to get this answer from the Bible. He rests this an- 
swer on the law of the land and the purposes of the 
borrower, and says it is not worse than taking a rental 
for land anyway. 

The questions with regard to the customs of the 
people of Israel are completely met in the Second 
and Third Chapters of this book. 

Fisher, also, we find from his catechism pub- 
lished in 1753, thought it necessary to make some 
excuse for the custom in his time. High interest he 
finds condemned, but moderate interest he tries to 
defend. 

*'Q. 32, What is it to take usury, according to the proper 
signification of the word? 

"A. It is to take gain, profit, or interest, for the loan of 
money. 

"Q. 33. What kind of usury or interest is lawful? 

"A. That which is moderate, easy, and no way oppressive. 
Deut 23:20, compared with Ex. 22:21. 

"Q. 34. How do you prove that moderate usury is lawful? 

"A. From the very light of nature, which teaches, that 
since the borrower proposes to gain by the loan, the lender 
should have a reasonable share of his profit, as a recompense 
for the use of his money, which he might otherwise have dis- 
posed of to his own advantage. 1 Cor. 8: 13. 

"Q. 35. What is the usury condemned in scripture and by 
what reason? 

"A. It is the exacting of more interest or gain for the loan 
of money, than is settled by universal consent, and the laws of 
the land. Prov. 28: 8. 'He that by usury, and unjust gain, 



236 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

increaseth his substance, shall gather it for him that will pity 
the poor.' 

"Q. 36. How do you prove from scripture, that moderate 
usury, or common interest, is not oppression in itself? 

"A. From the express command laid upon the Israelites 
not to oppress a stranger, Ex. 23: 9; and yet their being allowed 
to take usury from him, Deut. 23:20; which they would not 
have been permitted to do, if there had been an intrinsic evil 
in the thing itself. 

"Q. 37. Is it warrantable to take interest from the poor? 

"A. By no means; for, if such as are honest, and in needy 
circumstances, borrow a small sum towards a livelihood, and 
repay it in due time, it is all that can be expected of them; and 
therefore the demanding of any profit or interest, or even taking 
any of their necessaries of life in pledge, for the sum, seems to 
be plainly contrary to the law of charity. Ex. 22: 25-28. Ps. 
15:5. 

"Q. 38. Were not the Israelites forbidden to take usury 
from their brethren, whether poor or rich? Deut. 23: 19: 
'Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother.' 

"A. This text is to be restricted to their poor brethren, as 
it is explained, Ex. 22: 25, and Lev. 25: 35, 36; or, if it respects 
the Israelites indifferently, then it is one of the judicial laws 
peculiar to that people, and of no binding force now." 

In the answer to the 34th question he appeals to the 
light of nature. That light, as he interprets it, may- 
be applied as follows. We follow his language closely 
and his argument perfectly. 

From the very light of nature which teaches, that 
since the borrower of the hoe purposes to dig his own 
garden with it, the lender should have a reasonable 
amount of his garden dug, as a recompense for the 
use of the hoe^ which he might otherwise have used 
himself to dig his own garden. 



Per Contra; Political Economists. 237 

Fisher confirms his conclusion with a Scripture 
reference but it is so irrelevant that it would seem 
Wilson was wiser in omitting Scripture reference 
altogether. 1 Cor. 8 : 13, "Wherefore, if meat make 
my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while the 
world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend." 

The only explanation the writer ever saw or heard 
of, that was seriously made was this: "If using my 
brother's money without interest offends him, then 
I will never while the world standeth accept his money 
without interest lest I make my brother to offend." 
If this is the intended application then it may be 
further applied. If using a brother's money at six 
per cent, offends him then I will surely give him ten 
per cent, lest I cause my brother offence. Could there 
be a more absurd application of a Scripture passage ? 

The later theologians have seldom mentioned usury 
and none have discussed it at any length, and no 
divine to our knowledge has undertaken a defence. 
The "Systematic Theology" of Dr. Charles Hodge 
is perhaps the most elaborate and exhaustive. He 
does not more than refer to usury; he does not even 
mention it by name. But in his discussion of the vio- 
lation of the eighth commandment, he ridicules the 
idea that "a thing is worth what it is worth to the man 
who demands it." He says : "If this be so, then if a 
man perishing from thirst is willing to give his whole 
estate for a glass of water it is right to exact that 
price; or if a man in danger of drowning should offer 



238 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

a thousand dollars for a rope, we might refuse to 
throw it to him for a less reward. Such conduct every 
man feels is worthy of execration." 

He closes the discussion of the eighth command- 
ment with this significant and emphatic sentence: 
**Many who have stood well in society and even in the 
church will be astonished at the last day to find the 
word 'Thieves' written after their names in the great 
book of judgment." 

2. "To prohibit usury is revolutionary." 

Revolutions are not necessarily evil. They have 
been justified in all the ages to overthrow tyranny and 
oppression and to secure freedom and establish jus- 
tice. Oppressors and evil-doers in power have ever 
been anxious to maintain the ''statu quo" : that is, to 
be let alone. The "Man of Galilee" is the prince of 
revolutionists. He has overthrown and turned down 
the civilizations of the world and has brought in his 
own, called by his name, Christian civilization. His 
followers were revolutionists. The idolatrous crafts- 
men of Ephesus, not wishing to be disturbed in their 
profitable business, in order to defeat the work of 
Paul and his associates, raised the cry of revolution. 
"These that have turned the world upside down have 
come hither also." 

The things that are wrong side up must be re- 
volved. When material things are found superior to 
true manhood and womanhood, they must be 
reversed. When the works of men's hands are given 



Per Contra; Political Economists. 239 

a place above the hands that formed them, when the 
results of labor are given a place above the vital 
energy of the laborer, there is call for revolution. 

But this revolution should be the most peaceful the 
world ever saw. This need not require the destruc- 
tion of any property nor the shedding of one drop of 
blood. It need interfere with no man's rights nor 
enforce upon any man a burden he should not be will- 
ing to bear. A man is not interfering with the rights 
of another when he is paying his debts, and a man 
should not feel that there is placed upon him a burden 
he is unwilling to carry, when his own property is 
returned to him. Yet that is the ultimate, the 
extreme goal, to be reached by the abolition of usury ; 
every man free from debt and every man caring for 
his own property. 

3. "If usury is not permitted, the great modern 
enterprises are impossible." 

A great modern enterprise that is not for the gen- 
eral good has no right to be. Splendid enterprises are 
often made possible by the sacrifice of the welfare of 
the many for the interests of the few. The splendid 
plantations of the southern states flourished in time of 
slavery,, when the labor of many was subordinate to 
the welfare of one. They are not now possible; yet 
the present and future general good is better secured 
by the sacrifice of the splendid past. A splendid mili- 
tary campaign is only possible by the complete sub- 
ordination of the many to the will and order of the 



240 Scriptural^ Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

commanding head. One hundred thousand in an 
army is now receiving the attention of the world. 
One hundred thousand in happy homes are common- 
place. The pyramids are splendid monuments, but 
they were not a blessing to the slaves, who built them. 

Splendid enterprises in which the few command the 
many may be an unmitigated curse. 

''Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen who survey 
The rich man's joys increase, the poor's decay; 
'Tis yours to judge, how wide the limits stand, 
Between a splendid and a happy land." 

No enterprise, however brilliant, can be in the 
model state, that blesses the few by the losses of the 
many. 

Great and benign enterprises are possible without 
usury. There is no greater enterprise than the postal 
system in this land and extending to all the nations 
in the postal union. You owe it nothing; like poor 
Richard, "you pay as you go." It owes nothing, pays 
no interest and renders a great service for the small 
amount you pay. It is a standing illustration of the 
success of a strictly cash business. 

The great benevolent missionary enterprises, that 
send their messengers to all lands, over the whole 
earth, receive and disburse the gifts of the benevolent. 
Their work is not interrupted, but continues from age 
to age. 

The commerce of the world can be carried on just 
as effectively without usury. A mortgage does not 



Per Contra; Political Economists. 241 

make a farm more productive nor does a bonded debt 
make a railroad or a navigation company more effi- 
cient. The railroads and express and telegraph and 
telephone and other enterprises are greatly hindered 
in the service of the public by the tribute they are 
returning to the usurers. Had this farmer not this 
mortgage he could improve his farm and bring from 
his land better results. Were it not for the unceasing 
drain upon the income of great enterprises to meet 
the interest on bonds, the properties could be im- 
proved and the public better served at greatly reduced 
rates. Indeed the most successful enterprises are now 
operated by the owners. 

4. "It will be hard to borrow, if you will not pay 
interest." 

It would be a happy condition if no one should 
want to borrow except in urgent need from an acci- 
dental strait ; if that old independent, self-reliant spirit 
that refused to be indebted to any man could be uni- 
versal, that preferred frank and honest poverty in a 
cabin, to a sham affluence in a mortgaged palace. 

It should be hard to borrow, but easy to pay. 
Usury makes it easy to borrow, but hard to repay. 
Usurers even make it attractive and entice the victim 
into the trap of debt and then it is all but impossible 
to find a way out. An honest, industrious man of 
good habits must be ever on the alert or he will be 
entangled, sooner or later, with debts. 

It will not be harder for an honest man, who is in 



242 ScripHiralj Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

need, to borrow. He will not be able to borrow more 
than his need requires. The debt will not increase 
during the period of disabilit}^, and it will be easier to 
repay without increase. The usurer requires more 
than honesty for the security of his loan. The loan 
to him is precious seed, that must be planted where 
it will grow. To merely have the loan returned with- 
out increase does not meet his claim. To remit the 
increase, to make it easier for the poor debtor to pay, 
he would regard as a positive loss to himself and a 
gift to his victim. The usurer prefers rich debtors, 
who have abundant property to secure the loan and 
its increase. 

There is a despised class of pawn usurers who prey 
upon the poor. They are regarded as robbers of the 
poor in their distresses, but their business would be 
impossible, were it not that all avenues of relief are 
closed by usury; ''interest must be paid anywhere; 
why not borrow of them though the rates are high?" 
The moral quality of the act is the same; the dif- 
ference is wholly in the degree of turpitude. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

PER CONTRA; LAND RENTALS. 

"If no interest should be charged on money, then 
no rents should be collected." 

The early Christian apologists for usury, who felt 
it imperative to explain why it was permitted and 
practiced among Christians, found few arguments. 
They all agreed that the letter and spirit of the Scrip- 
tures forbade lending to the poor, upon interest. 
They also found it impossible to show from reason 
the right of money to an increase, but as money can 
readily be changed into other forms of property, as 
lands, they reversed the arguments; beginning with 
the assumed premise that it is right to charge rental 
for lands, and as money may represent lands, it is 
therefore right, they say, to charge interest on money. 

"It seems as lawful for a man to receive interest for 

money, which another takes pains with, improves, 

but runs the hazard in trade, as it is to receive rent 
for our land, which another takes pains with, im- 
proves, but runs the hazard of in husbandry." 

True logic would have led them to reason forward 

from the truth they had determined ; that ther ^ is no 

valid reason justifying interest on money. Resting on 

this truth, and then discovering that money may 

243 



244 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

represent lands, the necessary conclusion must be, 
that land rentals are without justice. Reversing the 
order of their argument, they assumed a false premise, 
and from it attempted to prove true the very propo- 
sition they had found to be false. 

There is the usury of lands as well as of ''money or 
victuals." 

Forty years ago the Omaha Indians went across 
the river and cut some fine grass growing on open 
land, and carried it to their reservation. The owner 
of the land, living in a distant state, learning of this^ 
claimed pay of the Indians and brought suit against 
them before the agent to recover it. The Indians 
admitted that they had cut and taken the grass; they 
also admitted its value. Their defense was that this 
man had no right superior to theirs. This was a 
natural growth that had cost him no labor, and they 
had not injured the land. Their speaker said, 'Tf the 
man had dug the land and planted it in corn and hoed 
and tended the corn, the corn would have been his; 
but the Great Spirit made the grass grow and this 
man gave it no labor nor care ; the bufifalo or the cattle 
could eat it. Have we not the rights of the cattle? 
This man has no right to it." 

The agent decided against them and compelled 
them to pay the man. They were much dissatisfied 
and felt they were unjustly treated and oppressed, 
because they had to pay that which the man had never 
earned. The red men were not versed in legal statutes 



Per Contra; Land Rentals. 245 

nor educated in the tutelage of usury, but it can not 
be denied that they interpreted very accurately the 
law written in the reason and conscience : that no man 
has any especial claim to that which he has not earned. 

The convictions of white men, and their method of 
compelling absentee owners to pay for the increase 
in value of their lands, came under the writer's obser- 
vation in a new settlement near the Indians' reserva- 
tion. He found three poor families in a district. 
They had Httle land and extremely plain homes, but 
there was a good school-house and a good school and 
an expensive bridge had been built across a stream to 
enable one of the families to reach it. Enquiring how 
they could afford to erect such improvements and 
support such a school, they replied that the lands all 
around them were owned by absentees, speculators 
in the east, who were holding the lands for the ad- 
vance in value, which they, in their struggling poverty, 
should make by the improvement of the country, 
when they would gather in an "unearned increment." 
They said they had the power to levy taxes for bridges 
and for schools and they had determined to make the 
absentees in this way compensate them, in part, for 
the increment they were earning for them. 

The conviction of right and justice in the white 
settler did not differ from the innate and untutored 
argument of the Indian. The Indians felt oppressed 
because they were compelled to pay the man for what 
that man had never earned. The white settlers deter- 



246 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

mined to thwart the purpose of the absentee owners 
to gain an increment from their sacrifice and labor. 

The landlord has a right to all that he has produced. 
When he has cleared away the forest or broken up the 
land; when he has planted the vineyard and builded 
the winepress, he has a right to let this out to hus- 
bandmen to gather the fruits of his preparation and 
planting and to share with them in the proportion 
each has contributed to the production, but to hold 
all that he himself has produced and yet claim a part 
of the product of another, is usury. A farmer retires 
from his farm because no longer able or willing to 
continue its cultivation. He has an undisputed right 
to a full reward for all his own labor, and for all he has 
purchased from others that he leaves in the farm. 
There must be a compensation for the transformation 
of the wilderness into a farm at the first, for the fer- 
tility that may have been added to the soil, for the 
orchards, vineyards, houses, barns and every im- 
provement he may have made and left on the farm. 
He has an undisputed right to all the labor remaining 
in the farm. If he sells he expects compensation for 
all this. 

But if he sells, he must begin at once to consume 
its price, unless he becomes a usurer and is supported 
by the interest. If he does not sell, but retains his 
farm, he must also begin at once to consume the farm. 

For him to demand of his tenant that the farm shall 
remain as valuable as when he left it, the soil not 



Per Contra; Land Rentals. 247 

permitted to become less fertile, the buildings to be 
kept from decay and restored when destroyed, the 
orchards to be kept vigorous and young by the plant- 
ing of new trees and vines; in short, the farm to be 
preserved in full value and yet pay a rental, is usury 
in land. 

The preservation of a farm or land and its restora- 
tion to the owner unimpaired after a term of years 
involves far more than persons not informed suppose. 
It seems to them unreasonable to farm a field and 
only return the unimpaired field to the owner. 

While land is stable and possibly the most easily 
preserved of all forms of property, at least a thief 
cannot carry it away, yet the preservation of land 
involves great care and risk. 

The taking of any crop from any land reduces its 
fertility. On the virgin, western fertile lands the 
farmers laughed at the thought that they should ever 
need to return fertilizers, but it was only a few years 
until they yearned for the fertility they had extrava- 
gantly wasted. Buildings inevitably decay and they 
may be destroyed by fire or storm. Orchards may be 
overturned by a cyclone or be destroyed by blight or 
by the thousand enemies of the various varieties of 
fruit trees. The land may be injured by washing that 
may require years to repair. A single storm has 
destroyed fields in this way that never can be restored. 
Noxious weeds take possession of land that can only 
be eradicated by infinite pains. In this state certain 



248 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

weeds are declared outlaws and must be destroyed by 
the farmer for the protection of his neighors. The 
farmer in this locality must have an alert eye for 
Canada thistles and oxeye daisy. It often causes more 
labor to eradicate them than the land is worth on 
which they are growing. 

If the annual renter was required to give bond for 
the return of the farm unimpaired, returning that 
which the crops and time must consume and destroy, 
taking all risks of every character upon himself, a 
thoughtful man, though poor and needing the oppor- 
tunity, would hesitate. It might involve him in an 
obligation he could not discharge in his whole life 
through conditions and providences over which he 
has no control. 

Practically in this country the owner renting a farm 
from year to year does consume it. It begins at once 
to decline in fertility, the improvements begin to fall 
into decay, weeds take possession, washes occur and 
are not repaired, and in a few years the half of the 
value is gone. The owner is fortunate if he has 
received in rentals sufficient to restore its former 
value. 

Under a system of perpetual tenantry the case is 
different. If the fertility declines it is the tenant's loss. 
The improvements are his and may be sold as one 
could sell ordinary farm tools, but not to be rem.oved. 
If they are impaired or destroyed it does not affect 
the annual rental. 



Per Contra; Land Rentals. 249 

The landed proprietor in city or country, who has 
permanent tenants, who are required to make every 
improvement and keep up perfectly the fertility, and 
who pay an annual rental, is in the same class as those 
who are receiving annual interest. The landlord prac- 
tically holds a perpetual mortgage, and the rental is 
the interest or increase exacted generation after gen- 
eration. 

The debtor working under a mortgage is cheered 
by the hope that he may be able, some day, to lift it, 
but the perpetual tenant on entailed lands knows that 
he is doomed to hopeless tenantry. He can never 
own the land and he is in the power of the landlord^ 
who is often oppressive. 

Calvin, in his letter of apology for usury of money, 
speaks of the injustice of the landlords in requiring a 
rental for ''some barren farm" and of the "harsher" 
conditions imposed upon the tenants. Indeed his 
whole argument, when summed up, is, that the usury 
of lands is more cruel and oppressive than the usury 
of money. 

While it is not yet true in America, yet considering 
the landlordships of Ireland and Great Britain and the 
older countries, with their unremitted exactions, 
grinding the life out of their tenants for a mere sub- 
sistence, it is likely that the race is today suffering 
more from the injustice and oppression of usury of 
land than from the usury of money. 



260 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

The land question is too large for one short chapter 
or for one small book. It requires more and deeper 
study than the subject has ever yet received. The 
ownership of lands cannot be absolute; it must be 
limited by the rights of those who live upon them, but 
the limitations have never yet been clearly defined. If 
a man has a right to live he must have a right to a 
place to live. If a child has a right to be born it must 
have a right to a place to be born. It cannot be that 
the mass of our race only touch the earth by the 
sufferance of those who claim to own it. 

The unprecedented rapidity of the development 
of this country is owing more to its wise and benefi- 
cent land laws than to anything else. They are not 
perfect but the most favorable to the landless that 
the world has ever known. No landlordism, no bind- 
ing up lands by entail to make it forever impossible 
to gain a title to a portion of the soil, but our land 
laws, wisely devised, gave hope of a home to the 
homeless everywhere. The result was that our people 
from the eastern part of our own country, and the 
landless from across the seas, swarmed over the 
mountains and filled the Ohio valley and pushed on 
to the great Mississippi and Missouri valleys, and in 
three generations have transformed this waste into 
happy homes. The possession of land, of a home, 
ennobles the character, produces a patriotic love of 



Per Contra; Land Rentals. 251 

this country and stimulates devotion to her institu- 
tions. The landless foreigner who makes here a home 
of his own is unwavering in his loyalty to the country 
of his adoption. Those foreigners, who do not fall in 
love with our institutions and do not become assim- 
ilated with our people, are tenants here as they were 
before they came here. They are not attached to our 
soil ; they do not secure homes of their own and are 
therefore restless and a menace. 

A dangerous tendency has been developing 
throughout our whole land in these later years. The 
usury of lands is on the increase. Tenantry is becom- 
ing more common on the farms in the country, while 
the mass of our city populations are living in rented 
houses or flats or crowded tenements. 

The yearning for a home of one's own is deeply 
imbedded in human nature. To be denied the privi- 
lege of living in one's own house is one of the greatest 
trials of a life. This tendency to tenantry is not 
because our people have come to care less for a home 
of their own, but the conditions are not such as to 
make a purchase of a home profitable ; the interest on 
the purchase price is greater than the usury of the 
land or rental. The natural and desirable state is for 
every family to own and occupy their home, and those 
conditions should be encouraged which make it 



252 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

unprofitable for any one to own real property he does 
not himself occupy, and which make it easy and 
profitable for every family to own their own home. 

When all lands are owned by those who occupy 
them, the prophet Micah's picture of the millennial 
dawn will be realized. Every man shall sit under his 
own vine and under his own fig tree and no one shall 
molest him or make him afraid, by demanding a rental 
or by serving a writ of ejectment. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

PER CONTRA; POLITICAL ECONOMIST. 

The students of political economy are not always 
reformers. It is not their purpose nor the object of 
their studies to transform society. They only 
endeavor to explain why things are as they are. They 
find the taking of usury all but universal, and they 
endeavor to give the reasons for the prevailing cus- 
tom. The subject is usually but slightly touched 
upon and dismissed with a few sentences. 

Few economists claim that interest or rental is a 
part of the cost of production. They mostly affirm 
that it is no part of production ; that it is merely the 
price paid for the opportunity to produce. The lender 
of money makes a loan to the borrower and thus gives 
him a better opportunity to produce than he had 
before. The landlord for the rental withdraws his 
hand from over his land and gives the renter the 
opportunity to produce a harvest. 

In justification, or at least in explanation of this 
exaction for an opportunity, three reasons are usually 
given. These may be briefly stated as risk^ time and 
abstinence. 

1. There is some risk in every investment. There 

is a possibility that the most honest, industrious and 

253 



254 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

careful debtor may by some misfortune not be able 
to return the loan and it would therefore be lost. To 
guard against this the usurer requires the rate of 
interest to be graded by the measure of risk. 

This is claimed to be of the nature of insurance, the 
borrower paying the premium. The profits of insur- 
ance are secured by collecting a larger premium than 
necessary to pay all losses. On this theory, the gain 
of usury is in the excess that can be secured of in- 
crease over the amounts lost. 

This is the reverse of insurance. Insurance is the 
payment by an owner of property to a company who 
guarantees its preservation. Usury is the payment by 
the company to the owner for the privilege of guaran- 
teeing that he shall not suffer loss. 

Business involves a risk usually covered by insur- 
ance, but no honest man expects to make a profit out 
of his insurance. 

2. A loan is made for a more or less extended 
time. Time is therefore claimed to be a ground for 
usury charges. 

This claim rests on the assumption that time will 
increase wealth. But time is the great destroyer ; time 
does not make gardens and farms, but covers them 
with weeds and sends them back to a wilderness ; time 
does not erect a house, but pulls it down; time does 
not build a city, but causes it to crumble and a few 
ages buries it under the dust ; time does not ''incubate 



Per Contra; Political Economist. 255 

eggs, but turns them putrid; it does not transform 
into fowls. If eggs are developed into chickens the 
difiference between eggs and chickens is the reward of 
the incubator." 

Aside from the spirit of benevolence and sympathy 
with the needy there are three selfish reasons why a 
time loan may be made. First, the owner has no 
present need of it and wishes to be rid of its care. Sec- 
ond, the owner shall need it at a distant date and he 
wishes it preserved intact against that time. But these 
afford no ground for a charge of increase. He who 
stands and resists the ravages of time until the day it 
is needed does a positive service and deserves a re- 
ward. Third, the lender wishes to appropriate the 
earnings of another during the period of time given. 
This is the usurer's reason, and were it not for this 
time would lose its importance as an element; it is 
certain that long time loans would not be so attract- 
ive. 

3. "The reward of abstinence" is a reward for 
refraining from consuming one's own wealth. 

"You can not have your cake and eat it. If you do 
not eat it, you have your cake, but not a cake and a 
half. Not a cake and a quarter tomorrow, dunce, 
however abstinent you may be, only the cake you 
have, if the mice do not eat it in the night." — Ruskin. 

The usual illustration is that of Jacob. He prac- 
ticed abstinence in refraining from eating the bowl of 



256 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

pottage and giving it to his hungry brother. The 
reward of his abstinence was his brother's birthright. 

If I do not take my soup now it is a great favor to 
have it preserved for me and served later, not cold 
and stale, but fresh and hot. If I deny myself now, 
for any cause, I can ask no more than that my meal 
shall be served, perfectly, later. This was all that 
Jacob could in justice demand of Esau. 

It should be remembered^ that because Jacob took 
Esau's birthright, as a reward of his abstinence, he 
was accounted a robber, was compelled to flee from 
his home^ and not for twenty years see his father's 
face; that the consciousness of this sin and of the mer- 
ited vengeance of the brother, whom he thereby de- 
frauded and whom he thought was on his track, 
caused that night of struggle when he could not let 
the angel go, until he had his promise of deliverance. 

Abstinence, to be benevolent, must Be an act of 
personal loving self-sacrifice for another. Benevo- 
lent abstinence is its own reward and asks no more. 
Abstinence in hope of gain, denying himself while 
another is using his wealth, cannot be regarded as an 
act of benevolence, but of a selfish grovelling greed; 
more gratified to see his wealth increase than to 
himself enjoy its use. That is the spirit of the miser 
and receives the contempt of all right thinking people. 

That the political economists are right in their 



Per Contra; Political Economist. 257 

analysis of the common thought of usury; that risk, 
time and abstinence are the elements of its basis in the 
popular mind, may not be denied, but if these are in 
fact the elements, then usury has no standing in 
equity and must be condemned by every enlightened 
conscience. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



USURY IN HISTORY. 



It would require volumes to fully present the 
history of usury. A very brief summary must sufifice 
in this place. Yet this synopsis may serve as a guide 
to those who may wish to pursue the investigation 
further and who have access to any considerable 
library of general and ecclesiastical history. 

The exacting of usury has always been more or less 
practiced, and there has always been a contention 
against it as impolitic and wrong. In heathendom 
the philosophers and economists and common people 
were usually arrayed against it, and the voice of Chris- 
tendom has been practically unanimous in its denun- 
ciation until the 17th century. (For History of Usury 
in the Church, see Chapter X.) 

Greece: Greece had no laws forbidding usury. 
The trade in money was left, like the trade in every 
thing else, without legal restraint. The law declared 
that the usurer should not demand a higher rate than 
that fixed by the original contract; it also advised 
*'Let the usury on money be moderate." One per 
cent, per month was the usual rate. 

There were among the Greeks at various times 

thoughtful men, who violently opposed the taking of 
258 



Usury in History. 259 

increase. Solon, of aristocratic blood, but with strong 
sympathies for the oppressed classes, led a Nehemiah- 
like reformation. Solon was wise and patriotic. 
His name is a synonym for unselfish devotion to the 
public good. He was given authority in Greece in 
times of great financial distress. Debts were increas- 
ing. Mortgage stones were erected at the borders of 
each tract of land, giving the name of the creditor and 
the amount of his claim. The interest could not be 
paid. Interest taking had concentrated the wealth 
and power of the state in a few hands. The farmer 
lost all hope and was only a laborer on the farm he 
once owned. The debtor who had no farm to work for 
his creditor was yet in a worse condition ; he was the 
mere slave of his creditor and could be sold by him. 
The free farmers were fast disappearing. The most 
of them were struggling with miserable poverty. 
Solon at once came to the relief of this suffering class. 
He released those who were enslaved and brought 
back those who had been sold abroad. The great 
work of Solon for this oppressed class has caused his 
name to be revered by all who have studied the 
history of his times. 

Plato opposed usury, but he does not give extended 
reasons. Also the philosopher, Aristotle. His name 
is yet illustrious in the departments of natural and 
moral science and economics. With regard to usury 
he said: "Of all modes of accumulation, the worst 
and most unnatural is interest. This is the utmost 



260 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

corruption of artificial degeneracy; standing in the 
same relation to commerce that commerce does to 
economy. By commerce money is perverted from 
the purpose of exchange to that of gain ; still this gain 
is occasioned by the mutual transfer of different 
objects ; but interest, by transferring merely the same 
object from one hand to another generates money 
from money, and the product thus generated is called 
offspring (toxos) as being precisely the same nature 
as that from which it proceeds." 

Rome : In the early ages of Rome there were no 
laws regulating the loans of money. The practice 
was common and was one of the most frequent sub- 
jects of popular complaint. In the celebrated 
secession of the lower classes of the people to Mons 
Sacer, when civil strife and fraternal bloodshed was 
threatened, the loudest outcry was against the oppres- 
sion of exhorbitant interest exacted by wealthy citi- 
zens of those who were obliged to borrow. The com- 
mon rate was twelve per cent, per annum. This is 
inferred from the fact that six per cent, was called half 
interest and three per cent, one-fourth interest. 

The early records of Rome prove conclusively the 
odium attached to the business of money-lending for 
profit. In the codification of laws in the fifth century 
B. C. the rate of usury was fixed at one per cent, per 
month. This limitation of usury was enacted after a 
long and bitter contest between the rich lenders and 
the poorer classes. 



Usury in History, 261 

A compromise seems to have been made in the 
assigned punishments. The laws for the collection 
of debts and the punishment of exacting more than 
the law permitted were alike extremely cruel. 

The creditors of an insolvent debtor were given the 
power of cutting his body in pieces and the power of 
selling his children into slavery. The penalty of 
taking more than this legal interest was punished with 
more severity than theft. The thief must restore 
double, but the usurer must restore fourfold. This 
we learn from Cato's treatise on ''Agriculture." 
Cato's own opinion of usury is shown in the answer 
■ which he made when he was asked what he thought 
of usury, his reply was, ''What do you think of 
murder?" 

Nearly a hundred years later the Licinian law for- 
bade all increase. A little later we find the one-half of 
one per cent, permitted by law. Then under Sylla 
the legal rate is made three per cent. In the time of 
Antony and Cleopatra it is four per cent. For a time 
there was utter confusion and intolerably oppressive 
rates prevailed. Horace, in his Satires, speaks of 
one lending at sixty per cent. In the reign of 
Tiberius Caesar,, Rome was again shaken with another 
usury sedition, an uprising of the people against the 
usurers. The law was finally adjusted in the Justinian 
Code, by a compromise permitting six per cent, and 
severely restraining the exorbitant rates. 

Three hundred and twenty-three years B. C, Livy 



262 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

speaks of a creditor who kept his debtor in irons, 
claiming, besides the debt, the interest which he ex- 
acted with greatest severity. It was soon after de- 
creed that this cruelty should end and that no citizen 
should be placed in irons or sold into slavery for debt. 

At the close of the republic the rate was twenty- 
four per cent. 

England : In the earliest periods of which we have 
any records we find that the doctrine, that letting 
money to hire was sinful, prevailed universally over 
the island of Great Britain. It was the prevailing 
opinion that interest, or usury, as it was then called, 
was unjust gain, forbidden by divine law, and which 
a good Christian could neither receive nor pay. In 
common law the practice of taking increase was 
classed among the lowest crimes against public 
morals. So odious was it among Christians that the 
practice was confined almost wholly to the Jews, who 
did not exact usury of Jews but of the Christians. 

The laws of King Alfred, about 900 A. D., directed 
that the effects of money-lenders upon usury should 
be forfeited to the king, their lands to the lords under 
whom they were held, and they should not be buried 
in consecrated ground. 

By the laws of Edward the Confessor, about 1050 
A. D., the usurer forfeited all his property and was 
declared an outlaw and banished from England. In 
the reign of Henry II, about the close of the twelfth 



Usury in History. 263 

century, the estates of usurers were forfeited at their 
death and their children were disinherited. 

His successor, Richard I, was yet more severe, for- 
bidding the usurers attending his coronation, nor 
would he protect them from mob violence. 

During the thirteenth century the severities against 
the usurers were not relaxed. King John confiscated 
their gathered wealth without scruple. It is recorded 
that he exacted an enormous fine of a Jew in Bristol 
for his usuries, and when the Jew refused to pay he 
ordered one of his teeth to be drawn daily until he 
should pay. The Jew is said to have endured the 
pulling of seven, but then weakened and paid the fine. 

Henry IH was equally harsh and severe in his 
measures. He exacted all he could and then turned 
them over to the Earl of Cornwall. 'The one flayed 
and the other emboweled." It is written in the 
chronicles of England, 1251 A. D., "By such usurers 
and licentious Hurs as belong to him, the realme had 
alreadie become sore corrupted." 

In the fourteenth century, under the three Edwards, 
the taking of interest was an indictable offence and 
Edward III made it a capital crime. 

In the fifteenth century, under Henry VII, the 
penalty was fixed at one hundred pounds and the 
penalty of the church added, which was excommuni- 
cation. 

Attorney General Noy, in the reign of James I, 
thought the taking of money by usury was no better 



264 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

than taking a man's life. He said : "Usurers are well 
ranked with murderers." 

In the sixteenth century, under Henry VHI, it was 
enacted that all interest above ten per cent, was 
unlawful. Less was not collectable by law, but was 
not a punishable offence. 

Edward VI revived the old laws condemning all 
interest. 

Mary I, next following, executed these laws with 
extreme severity. 

Elizabeth restored the laws of Henry VIII, in which 
usury less than ten per cent, was not a punishable 
offence. This edict of Elizabeth adds : '*In the inter- 
pretation of the law it shall be largely and strongly 
construed for the repression of usury." 

This law of Henry VHI and Elizabeth, with the 
rate of interest reduced, w^as the statute law of Eng- 
land until 1854, when all the usury laws were repealed. 

In 1694 William and Mary II entered into a con- 
tract to secure a permanent loan and pledged the 
kingdom to pay interest on it forever. 

The loan marked the turning point in the popular 
mind with regard to usury. As it was approved in 
their necessity by the king and queen at the head of 
the Protestant world, ecclesiastics began to shift their 
ground and to apologize for, and excuse, that which 
had been formerly unequivocably condemned. As 
the crown was the head of both the church and the 



Usury in History. 265 

state, the condemnation of usury seemed tinged both 
with disloyalty and heresy. The courts too began to 
modify their decisions to bring them into harmony 
with the action of the crown. 

The change in the usury laws were not made by 
enactments of Parliament, but by the decisions of 
courts. The precedents were gradually accumulated 
and the statutes were merely made to conform to 
them. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

FRANCIS BACON. 

From the short dissertation on usury found in the 
works of Bacon we learn that the taking of usury was 
a recognized evil and odious in his time. 

It will be noticed that he eliminates risk from usury 
and sees that ''In the game of certainties against 
uncertainties" usury is sure to win. It will be noticed 
also that he mentions only economic arguments 
against usury. He does not give ethical and moral 
reasons. He does not mention the want of sympathy 
for the poor and their oppression. 

In his statement of the arguments in defence he 
implies that the usurer is less grasping than the man 
he knew who said "The devil take this usury." 

This is the very opposite of the picture of the usurer 
given by his contemporary, Shakespeare, in his char- 
acter, Shylock. 

His specious argument for the regulation of the 
evil ''For some small matter for the license" is familiar 
to modern reformers in connection with other sins. 
He speaks of the reduction of the usury rates as a 
general good and believes "It will no whit discourage 
the lender." Wrong-doers in all the ages have been 
ready to part with a portion of the profits of an unlaw- 
ful business for the cover of the authority of the state. 

266 



Frcmcis Bacon. 267 

The following is his discussion in full 

OF USURY. 

*'Many have made witty invectives against usury. 
They say that it is a pity the devil should have God's 
part, which is the tithe. That the usurer is the 
greatest Sabbath breaker, because his plough goeth 
every Sunday. That the usurer is the drone that 
Virgil speaketh of: 

"Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepihus arcent. 

"That the usurer breaketh the first law that was 
made for mankind after the fall, which was, in sudore 
vultus tui comedes panem tuum; non in sudore vulttis 
alieni; (in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread — 
not in the sweat of another's face.) That usurers 
should have orange-tawney bonnets, because they do 
Judaize. That it is against nature for money to beget 
money ; and the like. I say only this^ that usury is a 
concessum propter duritiem cordis; (a thing allowed 
by reason of the hardness of men's hearts) : for since 
there must be borrowing and lending, and men are 
so hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury 
must be permitted. Some others have made sus- 
picious and cunning propositions of banks, discovery 
of men's estates and other inventions. But few have 
spoken of usury usefully. It is good to set before us 
the incommodities and the commodities of usury, that 
the good may be either weighed out or culled out; 
and warily to provide, that while we make forth to 



268 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

that which is better, we meet not with that which is 
worse. 

"The discommodities of usury are, first, it makes 
fewer merchants. For were it not for this lazy trade 
of usury, money would not lie still, but would in great 
part be employed upon merchandising; which is the 
vena porta of wealth in a state. The second, that it 
makes poor merchants. For as a farmer can not hus- 
band his ground so well if he sit at a great rent, so 
the merchant can not drive his trade so well, if he sit 
at great usury. The third is incident to the other 
two; and that is the decay of customs of kings or 
states, which ebb or flow with merchandising. The 
fourth that it bringeth the wealth or treasure of a 
realm or state into a few hands. 

''For the usurer being at certainties, and others at 
uncertainties, at the end of the game most of the 
money will be in the box ; and ever a state flourisheth 
when wealth is more equally spread. The fifth that 
it beats down the price of land ; for the employment 
of money is chiefly either purchasing or merchandis- 
ing ; and usury waylays both. The sixth, that it doth 
dull and damp all industries, improvements and new 
inventions, wherein money would be stirring, if it 
were not for this slug. The last, that it is the canker 
and ruin of many men's estates; which in process of 
time breeds a public poverty. 

"On the other side, the commodities of usury are, 



Francis Bacon. 269 

first, that howsoever usury in some respect hindereth 
merchandising, yet in some other it advanceth it; for 
it is certain that the greatest part of trade is driven 
by young merchants upon borrowing at interest; so 
as if the usurer either call in or keep back his money, 
there will ensue presently a great stand of trade. The 
second is^ that were it not for this easy borrowing 
upon interest, man's necessities would draw upon 
them a most sudden undoing; in that they would be 
forced to sell their means (be it lands or goods) far 
under foot; and so, whereas usury doth but gnaw 
upon them, bad markets would swallow them quite 
up. As for mortgaging or pawning, it will little 
mend the matter; for either men will not take pawns 
without use; or if they do, they will look precisely 
for the forfeiture. I remember a cruel monied man 
in the country that would say: The devil take this 
usury, it keeps us from forfeitures of mortagages and 
bonds.' The third and last is^ that it is a vanity to 
conceive that there would be ordinary borrowing 
without profit; and it is impossible to conceive the 
number of inconveniences that would ensue if bor- 
rowing be cramped. Therefore, to speak of the abol- 
ishing of usury is idle. All states have ever had it, 
in one kind or rate, or other. So as that opinion must 
be sent to Utopia. 

"To speak now of the reformation and reiglement 
of usury; how the discommodities of it may be best 
avoided, and the commodities of it retained. It ap- 



270 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury, 

pears by the balance of commodities and discom- 
modities of usury, two things are to be reconciled. 
The one, that the tooth of usury be grinded that it 
bite not too much; the other, that there be left open 
a means to invite monied men to lend to the mer- 
chants for the continuing and quickening of trade. 
This can not be done except you introduce two sev- 
eral sorts of usury, a less and a greater. For if you 
reduce usury to one low rate it will ease the common 
borrower, but the merchant will be to seek for money. 
And it is to be noted, that the trade of merchandise, 
being the most lucrative, may bear usury at a good 
rate : other contracts not so. 

''To serve both intentions, the way would be briefly 
thus: That there be two rates of interest; the one 
free and general for all, the other under license only, 
to certain persons and in certain places of merchan- 
dising. First, therefore, let usury in general be re- 
duced to five in the hundred ; and let that rate be pro- 
claimed free and current; and, let the state shut it- 
self out to take any penalty for the same. This will 
preserve borrowing from any general stop or dryness. 
This will ease infinite borrowers in the country. This 
will, in great part, raise the price of land, because 
land purchased at sixteen years' purchase will yield 
six in the hundred and somewhat more ; whereas this 
rate of interest yields but five. This, by Hke reason, 
will encourage and edge industrious and profitable 
improvements; because many will rather venture in 



Francis Bacon. 271 

that kind than take five in the hundred, especially 
having been used to greater profit. Secondly, let 
there be certain persons licensed to lend to known 
merchants upon usury at a higher rate; and let it be 
with the cautions following: Let the rate be, even 
with the merchant himself, somewhat more easy than 
that he used formerly to pay; for by that means all 
borrowers shall have some ease by this reformation, 
be he merchant or whosoever. Let it be bank or 
common stock, but every man be master of his own 
money. Not that I altogether mislike banks, but 
they will hardly be brooked in regard of certain sus- 
picions. Let the state be answered some small mat- 
ter for the license, and the rest left to the lender; for 
if the abatement be but small, it will no whit dis- 
courage the lender. For he, for example, that took 
before ten or nine in the hundred, will sooner descend 
to eight in the hundred than give over his trade in 
usury, and go from certain gains to gains of hazard. 
Let these licensed lenders be in number indefinite, 
but restrained to certain principal cities and towns of 
merchandising; for then they will be hardly able to 
color other men's monies in the country. So as the 
license of nine will not suck away the current rate of 
five ; for no man will lend his monies far of¥, nor put 
them into unknown hands. 

''If it be objected that this doth in a sort authorize 
usury, which before was in some places but permis- 
sive ; the answer is, that it is better to mitigate usury 
by declaration, than to suffer it to rage by con- 
nivance." 

(Works of Francis Bacon, Vol. 12, Page 218.) 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
WHY THIS TRUTH WAS NEGLECTED. 

That we may find the way of return^ we must con- 
sider the reasons of our wandering. We must reverse 
our direction and retrace our steps. These reasons 
are not occult or hard to find. 

1. The departure had its root in man's depraved 
nature. The natural tendency is evil, while the graces 
must be cultivated with great diligence. Evils grow 
as weeds grow in the garden, as thorns and thistles 
and briers cover the untended fields. This evil has 
not been disturbed by any book exposing its harm 
for a hundred years, and it has been two hundred 
since it was treated as a violation of the Eighth Com- 
mandment. This evil, thus left undisturbed, has 
flourished and spread over all the world. 

2. Two and three hundred years ago the great 
doctrines were occupying the thought of Christen- 
dom. The doctrines of free grace, by repentance and 
an exercise of faith, were receiving close attention. 
The creeds of the denominations were being unfolded, 
and their defense and proof absorbed the thought of 
the wise and good. What shall we believe was the 
question? 

3. Other great evils stood before the faces of 

those who labored for the uplifting of the race. Prac- 

272 



Why this Truth was Neglected. 273 

tices attached to the ecclesiastics, and degrading^ the 
organized churchy were flaunted before the eyes of 
those who stood for true faith and pure Hving. These 
were attacked with vigor, while this evil, which had 
been especially the sin of the Jew, crept in and en- 
trenched itself. 

4. Covetousness is one of those secret sins that 
may lurk in the heart while there is maintained a fair 
outward life. Few will admit this sin. Priests declare 
that this is the one sin that is never voluntarily con- 
fessed. Usury is the common outward activity of this 
inward state, and when usury was made lawful by the 
statutes of the realm, the voice of conscience was 
silenced. The conscience that would cry out in pro- 
test against a rate of interest forbidden by law, will 
permit the same rate when the statutes of the state 
are changed. 

5. Early education and natural buoyancy have 
led the debtors to be less sensitive to the burdens of 
usury upon them. 

A large portion of our present arithmetic is taken 
up with percentage. The position of the student, in 
mind, is that of the creditor. This is presumed in the 
statements of the problems and lies in the thought of 
the student in all the calculations. If the statements 
of propositions and their conclusions were made to 
place the student on the debtor side, then the study 
of percentage would educate him to a horror of this 
sin. 



274 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

When a loan is made, the attention of the borrower 
is seldom called to the rapidity of increase and the 
dangers of accumulation. If this were done, and a 
prompt return of both principal and interest required^ 
at the end of the term the borrower would soon be 
alarmed at the hopelessness of permanent gain 
through debt. 

Peter Cooper, it is said, taught this lesson to a 
friend who was talking of borrowing for six months 
at three per cent. We clip the following story: 

''Why do you borrow money for so short a time ?" 
Mr. Cooper asked. 

"Because the brokers will not negotiate bills for 
longer." 

'Well, if you wish," said Mr. Cooper, "I will dis- 
count your note at that rate for three years." 

"Are you in earnest?" asked the would-be bor- 
rower. 

"Certainly I am. I will discount your note for ten 
thousand dollars for three years at that rate. Will 
you do it?" 

"Of course I will," said the merchant. 

"Very well," said Mr. Cooper. "Just sign this note 
for ten thousand dollars, payable in three years, and 
give me your check for eight hundred dollars, and 
the transaction will be complete." 

"But where is the money for me?" asked the aston- 
ished merchant. 



Why this Truth was Neglected. 21 b 

"You don't get any money/' was the reply. "Your 
interest for thirty-six months at three per cent, per 
month amounts to one hundred and eight per cent., 
or ten thousand eight hundred dollars. Therefore, 
your check for eight hundred dollars just makes us 
even." 

There has come to this table, a letter recently sent 
by a wise uncle to his nephew, who sought from him 
his first loan. Usually the interest is minimized while 
the hopeful youth is permitted to indulge his dreams 
of fancied good, to be easily gained by a loan. 

"My Near Nephew : 

*T enclose a draft for forty dollars with a note for 
the amount to me, due in one year at six per cent., 
which please sign and return to me. This is probably 
the first note that you have ever given, and there 
are one or two things about a note that maybe you 
have never discovered. One striking pecuHarity is, 
that they always come due, though they are drawn 
for a year. It may seem a long time, but when you 
have a note come due at the end of the year it seems 
altogether too short and has gone before you are 
aware of it. Another peculiar thing is, that while in- 
terest is a little thing apparently, yet it never works 
on the eight-hour system, but continues steadily 
through the whole twenty-four, and through the 
whole seven days in the week. Its about the most 
industrious animal of my acquaintance, working 
nights and Sundays as well, and apparently never be- 



276 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

coming in the least fatigued, consequently, though it 
appears to be so slow, still if you do not watch it 
closely, the first thing you know you will be aston- 
ished at what an amount of work it has accomplished. 
There are other things equally striking about notes, 
but these two are the most important, and the ones 
I particularly wish to impress on your mind. 



"P. S. — Don't think from the tone of this that I'm 
not willing to let you have the money. I merely 
want to impress on you what it means to go in debt." 

6. The evil was not hitherto so much felt. This, 
especially, is true in the United States. Great natural 
resources, unclaimed wealth, made the burden of a 
small debt unfelt. By appropriating the vast un- 
broken forests and untilled lands and unopened mines 
of precious metals, of coal and iron and gas and oil, 
there seemed such evident advantages from the bor- 
rowed capital that the evils were unnoticed, until 
these natural resources had been appropriated and 
were held in private hands, and the opportunities are 
found to be denied those who have come so closely 
after. 

This system made it possible for one generation to 
grasp a continent; to grasp all its natural resources 
and hold them, and compel tribute from all that came 
after. Taking only a limited and short-time view, 
the advantages seemed great and the evils small. But 



Why this Truth was Neglected. 277 

looking at the welfare of the generations its evils 
might have been clearly discerned. 

7. The evil was never before so great. The vast 
accumulations of wealth, so sure to follow the opera- 
tion of usury, was hitherto unknown. Corporations, 
combinations for the handling of great interests, 
grasping the natural resources and monopolizing the 
natural wealth, gaining franchises covering a monop- 
oly of privileges in transportation, light and commu- 
nication by the telephone or telegraph, are compara- 
tively recent. 

8. The first appearance of indebtedness is a seem- 
ing, but false, prosperity. The young man who takes 
possession of a tract of land and then, with borrowed 
capital, improves it, building his house and his barns 
and his permanent buildings, and stocking it with 
animals that please his taste, has the appearance of 
abounding prosperity, but as the unending grind of 
usury continues, these, he comes to feel, are but 
weights to which he is chained, and in an agony of 
sweat he is compelled to wear out his life. 

A city incurring debt is seemingly prosperous. 
Bonds are issued for the erection of attractive public 
buildings, for the paving of muddy streets, for the 
beautifying of public parks. These bond issues are 
signs of the prosperity of only one class, the usurers. 
The ultimate burden is upon the laborers, who must 
pay every bond, interest and principal. 

9. The opponents of usury have not always been 



278 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

wise. They have indulged in bitter invective rather 
than solid argument. The language of the fathers, 
especially, was unqualified in severity. 

When the absurdity and tuimitigated evil of usury 
is seen^ and one feels that adequacy requires superla- 
tives, it is not easy to restrain language and use mild 
terms. The divine prohibition was so clear and the 
effects so oppressive, especially to the poor, that it 
did not appear to the fathers to require argument. 
The divine authority was not, therefore, followed up 
with the economic basis or reasons for the pro- 
hibitions. 

Usury crept in because it was not barred out by 
the sound reasoning of those who knew its evils. The 
vituperations were ignored as the rantings of ill-bal- 
anced minds. 

10. Like every other wrong, it feeds upon itself. 
The very conditions it produces fosters and promotes 
its growth. At first directing effort and thought along 
material lines, ultimately the ideals become groveling. 
The purposes of a worthy life and the characteristics 
of a noble manhood are perverted. There comes a 
wrong idea of true greatness. There arises a false 
measure of manhood. That measure is wealth, and 
of all the grounds of distinction among men, wealth 
is the most sordid. Success is accumulation of 
wealth. Prosperity is getting rich. Whatever else a 
man may accomplish in life, if he remains poor he is 
accounted a failure. Yet to this pass, such a pass, 



Why this Truth was Neglected. 279 

have we come, that our national and age character- 
istic is that of materiah gain, commonly called com- 
mercialism. This was not the thought of our fathers 
who subordinated material gain to the development 
of noble manhood. This is a perversion of our Amer- 
ican traditions, and is a menace to better development 
of the individual and of the state. 

11. Wrong laws mislead the judgment and per- 
vert the conscience. If there is a want of harmony 
between the moral and statute law when selfish inter- 
ests are served, the moral law will be ignored. State 
laws ease the conscience that would be otherwise 
troubled. The rate of usury fixed by a state is used 
as a moral guide. When the legal rate is six per cent, 
it is wrong to take eight, but when the legal rate is 
ten per cent, then it is not wrong to take ten. The 
familiarity of our people with laws recognizing and 
enforcing interest rates has perverted their ideas of 
right and justice by substituting the statute for the 
divine moral law. But state laws can also trouble the 
conscience that is at ease and be a teacher of right- 
eousness. Let the ancient laws forbidding usury be 
placed upon our statute books and enforced, and it 
would not be half a generation till the conscience and 
reason both approved. 

Nothing in history more shocked the conscience of 
Christendom than the compact of William and Mary 
with usurers in 1694. That was in direct conflict 
with the teachings and practice of all the ages among 



280 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

Christians. It has taken two hundred years for courts 
and states and financial institutions to first dull the 
Christian conscience and then secure its approval. 
The world now awaits the coming of some captain of 
righteousness, equal in authority and influence in 
church and state, who will organize a return to the 
faith and practice of the fathers. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 
CRUSHED TRUTH WILL RISE AGAIN. 

The practice of usury is so general, and it is appar- 
ently so fully approved and sanctioned by many of 
the most intelligent and virtuous of our people, that 
those who believe in its prohibition and are disposed 
to pessimism may be utterly discouraged. 

Truth must eventually prevail. Any custom or 
system built upon falsehood must sooner or later 
yield. The house built upon the sand must in time 
fall. It may be undermined by years of instruction 
and so gradually give way that the date of its over- 
throw can hardly be determined, or it may in its 
strength be taken in a storm and fall. The whole 
commercial credit system built on this monstrous 
falsehood must either crumble or tumble. 

The prophet Isaiah was hopeful and happy in the 
midst of the most unfavorable conditions of corrup- 
tion and alienation from the truth, for he was able 
with his prophetic eye to catch a glimpse of the good 
time coming, when righteousness should completely 
triumph. *'He shall teach us of His ways and we shall 
walk in His steps." "With righteousness shall He 
judge the poor." "Righteousness shall be the girdle 
of His loins." 

No prophet has fixed a date for the suppression of 

281 



282 Scriptural J Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

usury, yet no intelligent man of faith, familiar with 
the reform.s of the past, when as thoroughly en- 
trenched and as giant evils were attacked and over- 
thrown, need be in despair. 

We were enslaved by superstitions. Haunted 
houses were numerous and the bewitching of people 
was frequent. Two hundred arrests for witchcraft 
were made in a single year, 1692, and twenty of these 
persons were put to death. These persecutions were 
urged and defended by Cotton Mather, a representa- 
tive of the highest intelligence and culture of the 
times. His mother was a daughter of John Cotton, 
and his father the President of Harvard College. 
Now black cats and epilepsy inspire no fear, and 
ghost stories do not now terrify and unnerve our 
children. 

DuelHng prevailed among men of honor. Public 
opinion made it compulsory that personal differences 
between gentlemen should be settled in this way. 
Persons were branded as cowards who would not put 
their lives in jeopardy. Few had the courage to re- 
sist. Duels were common among the political leaders 
at Washington. Many a shot rang out at sunrise in 
the little valley at Bladensburg, the noted duelling 
ground. Jackson and Benton and Clay and De Witt 
Clinton were duellists. After the kilHng of Alexander 
Hamilton by Aaron Burr, in 1804, the whole country 
was aroused and an agitation began against the cus- 
tom, but it yielded slowly. In 1838 and 1841 there 



Crushed Truth Will Rise Again. 283 

were duels between distinguished congressmen. But 
now public opinion is so transformed that the ^'honor- 
able and brave" duellist is a moral coward. 

Gambling was a common sin. There were lotteries 
organized for the raising of funds for state and 
municipal expenses. There were rafHes at church 
fairs to support the ordinances in the sanctuary. The 
rules of the games were protected by the laws of the 
state. No one who had lost in a ^ame could recover 
by law unless he proved that the ri\les of the game 
had not been followed. The rules for gambling were 
regarded as legitimate as the regulations of any busi- 
ness. The gambler was only a law-breaker when he 
''cheated." Now gambling is unlawful in every state 
and territory, and any newspaper advertising a lot- 
tery is shut out of our mails. Even an ''honest" 
gambler is now classed among robbers. 

Intemperance was rampant through the eighteenth 
century and more than half the nineteenth. Whisky 
was king. Through a false physiology it became the 
almost universal opinion that in the great portion of 
the United States the climate required the use of 
"ardent spirit." Ministers and all classes of the peo- 
ple were thus deluded, and almost every person, adult 
or child, was a consumer. 

"Upon rising in the morning a glass of Hquor must 
be taken to give an appetite for breakfast. At eleven 
o'clock the merchant in his counting-room, the black- 
smith at his forge, the mower in the hay field, took a 



284 Scriptural^ Ethical and Ecenomic Viezv of Usury. 

dram to give them strength till the ringing of the bell 
or the sounding of the horn for dinner. In mid- 
afternoon they drank again. When work for the day 
was done, before going to bed, they quaffed another 
glass. It was the regular routine of drinking in well- 
regulated and temperate families. Hospitalities be- 
gan with drinking. 'What will you take?' was the 
question of host to visitor. Not to accept the prof- 
fered hospitality was disrespectful. Was there the 
raising of a meeting house, there must be hospitality 
for all the parish: no lack of Hquor; and when the 
last timber was in its place a bottle of rum must be 
broken upon the ridge-place. In winter men drank 
to keep themselves warm; in summer to keep them- 
selves cool; on rainy days to keep out the wet, and on 
dry days to keep the body in moisture. Friends, 
meeting or parting, drank to perpetuate their friend- 
ship. Huskers around the corn-stack, workmen in 
the field, master and apprentice in the shop, passed 
the brown jug from lip to lip. The lawyer drank be- 
fore writing his brief or pleading at the bar ; the min- 
ister, while preparing his sermon or before delivering 
it from the pulpit. At weddings bridegroom, bride, 
groomsman, and guest quaffed sparkling wines. At 
funerals minister, friend, neighbor, mourner, all ex- 
cept the corpse, drank of the bountiful supply of 
liquors always provided. Not to drink was disre- 
spectful to living and dead, and depriving themselves 
of comfort and consolation. In every community 



Crushed Truth Will Rise Again. 285 

there were blear-eyed men with bloated, haggard 
faces; weeping women, starving children." (Building 
of a Nation. Page 271.) 

While ''temperate" men were grieved at the tide 
of wretchedness and protested, they did not think it 
possible to get on without whisky. Dr. Prime, for 
so many years editor of the New York Observer, told 
of the meeting of the family physician and the pastor 
at his father's home in a case of severe illness. When 
the physician took his leave the pastor followed him 
into the yard, where they had a long consultation. 
The pastor was anxiously seeking advice. Three 
drinks made his head swim^ and the problem was 
how he could make more than three calls and not be- 
come unsteady. The doctor gave directions and Dr. 
Prime said that neither the minister nor the physician 
thought of the simple remedy, "not drinking." 

It has taken two generations, but the transforma- 
tion is marvelous. The minister can now call in 
every home in his parish and never once have an op- 
portunity to drink. If Rev. John Pierpont was yet 
living, who was put out of his pulpit in Boston by an 
ecclesiastical council because he publicly protested 
against the use of the basement of his church as a 
storeroom for whisky, he would see every minister 
losing his pulpit who would not publicly protest 
against such a desecration. Rev. George B. Cheever, 
the dreamer, in 1830, woke up the stupid consciences 
of the fuddled men and women; he wrote out his 



286 Scripturalj Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

dream and published it, "Deacon Giles' Distillery/* 
and went to jail for it, but even he never dreamed of 
the greatness of the temperance reform that has 
followed. 

The overthrow of chattel slavery is complete and 
the human rights of the inferior peoples are recog- 
nized. Human slavery was of old, as ancient as his- 
tory ; it was widespread over the world ; there was an 
immense and profitable commerce in human flesh; 
luxurious wealth and ease was secured by appro- 
priating labor without compensation ; it was thought 
that the Scriptures in both Testaments approved the 
holding of bondmen; there was a consciousness of 
superior gifts; there was a firm belief that the ne- 
groes, especially, needed the care of the superior 
race ; that they were better off and happier than they 
would be in freedom; there was a deep-seated race 
prejudice that remains unyielding till this day. Yet 
the slave trade has ceased, stopped by armed vessels 
patroling the seas. The slaves, eight hundred 
thousand, in the West Indies were set free; the 
shackles were stricken off by the sword in the United 
States; Brazil adopted gradual emancipation, and 
chattel slavery disappeared forever from the civilized 
world. 

The reform battles fought and won are assurances 
that victory shall also reward those who contend 
against this sin of usury. There are also other good 
grounds for confidence. 



Crushed Truth Will Rise Again. * 287 

1. They are seeking only a return — a reform: 
"a restoration to a former state ;" they are not seeking 
for the establishment of some new and untried theory, 
but they are seeking a return to the faith and conduct 
of the righteous from the beginning and up seven- 
teen centuries of the Christian era. The race is but 
temporarily deflected to the worship of the golden 
calf. 

2. There is coming forward a great army of in- 
telHgent, virtuous young people. They are made in- 
telligent by our high schools, sem.inaries and colleges. 
They are made students of the Bible and stimulated in 
righteousness by Sunday Schools, Christian Associa- 
tions, Endeavors, Leagues and Unions. From these 
there shall rise up defenders of the truth, free from the 
burden of debt and unbiassed by life-long association 
with conditions familiar to those older. The reform- 
ers in all ages have been young, and this reform will 
be no exception. There is a rashness in youth that 
needs direction, but there is also a dash and hope and 
confidence that is necessary to break away from old 
customs. One generation of intelligent, virtuous 
young people could give this evil its fatal blow. 

Usury cannot flourish among the vicious and the 
unreliable. Other evils may flourish among the idle, 
the indolent, the treacherous, the deceitful and the 
dishonest, but industry and economy and integrity 
and faithfulness and honor and even God-fearing 



288 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

piety are desirable qualities in the usurer's victims. 
The higher the civilization, yes Christian civilization, 
the more is produced and the richer the harvest. The 
usurer has no use for a savage. This worm thrives in 
the living body and sucks its vitality. It cannot flour- 
ish in putrid flesh. Let the highest types of our 
young manhood avoid this sin and its death knell 
is sounded. 

3. Present conditions stimulate an interest in this 
question. The unequal distribution of the vast wealth 
now being produced: the earnings of the many 
turned into the cofifers of a few; the struggles be- 
tween the employers and their employees; organized 
labor and combinations of wealth; lead to a closer 
study of this and allied economic questions than they 
have ever received before. The solution of these 
questions will expose the fraud of usury. 

4. The patriotic spirit has not decayed in our 
people and rulers. They are as strongly attached to 
our free, popular institutions as were the patriots of 
'76. There is alarm at the tendency to slip away 
from the early traditions, at the centralization of 
power, at class legislation. The influence of usury 
is so strong to promote a favored class and to con- 
centrate power, .that it must be resisted as an enemy 
to our republican institutions. It gradually under- 
mined and then destroyed the repubHc of Venice, and 
it is now doing its first work with us. It must soon 



\ 



Crushed Truth Will Rise Again. 289 

emerge from its cover. Then our people will arouse 
with their patriotic fervor and fell it with one blow, 
and then bury it with the other enemies of the gov- 
ernment that have from time to time arisen. 

5. In the studies in sociology there is now a 
strong current toward Socialism. There is a desire 
to preserve the individual's interests and yet a 
stronger disposition to merge him in the general wel- 
fare. 

There is a conviction that the privileges of indi- 
viduals have been unduly guarded while the rights 
of the public were neglected, that the rights of indi- 
viduals have received an excess of protection while 
the welfare of the great mass of the people has been 
sacrificed. The present problem of the student of 
sociology is, How can the rights of individuals be 
adjusted, yet so as to maintain the superior interests 
of all the people? This can be accomplished largely, 
if not completely, by the abolition of usury. 

Let the Government receive on deposit the surplus 
wealth of the individuals for safe keeping and subject 
to their orders. Let the Postal Savings Bank be 
established. The Government is the best possible 
security. The certificates of deposit would be as 
good as Government bonds. They could take the 
place of the National Bank currency. The Postal 
Department now transfers money and in a manner 
receives deposits and issues postal notes. 



290 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic View of Usury. 

These deposits as they accumulated would lift from 
the people the burden of the interest bearing debt. 
As they increased the Government could invest them 
in public utilities to be operated for the general wel- 
fare. The Government thus caring for the surplus 
wealth the people are entitled to any benefits that 
may accrue from its use. All would have an interest 
in preserving and all would share in the advantages 
■of the property thus cared for by the State, while 
each would have his individual earnings subject to 
draft for his personal needs or pleasure. 

This would preserve the rights of the individual 
and secure to him perfectly his surplus earnings, and 
at the same time the whole people, through the Gov- 
ernment, would have the use of this accumulated 
wealth for its safe-keeping. This will preserve the 
stimulating incentives of individualism and also gain, 
practically, the blessings of Socialism. This will be 
the natural conclusion in the balancing and adjust- 
ment of the present sociological discussion. 

6. The prohibition of usury would be to the ma- 
terial advantage of the great mass of our people. It 
would be a blessing to all, though it might hinder the 
material gain of a few, but the hindered would not be 
a tithe of our people. It is not easy to forsake the 
wrong when appetite or passion or selfish interests 
plead for it. The martyrs who will stand by the right 
"though the heavens fall" are not a majority of our 



Crushed Truth Will Rise Again. 291 

people. The paths of righteousness are easy, broad 
and smooth, and crowded with enthusiastic shouters 
when self-interest can walk hand in hand with a re- 
form. Opposition to usury is self-defense to the poor, 
the pensioners, the producers, and they form a 
mighty, irresistible army. 

7. Reason remains. The laws of logic have not 
changed nor has the human mind lost its power of 
tracing premises to their conclusion. The custom of 
usury was never reasoned into practice, but was per- 
mitted to creep in while reason was diverted to ab- 
stract, abstruse, scholastic subjects by those who 
claimed to be scholars. Had the fathers reasoned 
more about practical subjects, and scolded less, this 
sin would never have appeared in Christian society 
and claimed respectability. When the people begin 
to think and to turn their reasoning powers to this 
subject, as light dispels darkness, this gross error 
will flee away. 

8. The conscience is yet alert to condemn the 
wrong and to approve the right. The public con- 
science was never more tender nor more delicately 
adjusted, but it is wanting in intelligence in this mat- 
ter. The eye cannot see to determine the nature of 
an object without light, so the conscience must be 
enlightened, or made intelligent by the reason, to 
enable it to give a right decision. Conscience is the 
same in all ages among all peoples, and when in- 



292 Scriptural, Ethical and Economic Viezv of Usury. 

formed by investigation and reasoning, the condem- 
nation of usury will be as unanimous as in the cen- 
turies of the past. 

Prayer is also a means to this righteous end. God 
is still on His throne. His ear is not heavy. He hears 
the cry of the raven and sparrows and lions. He 
hears the cry of His suffering children and will not 
fail to come to their rehef. In all the past, man's ex- 
tremity has been God's opportunity. Relief has come 
at unexpected times and by ways that were not 
known. Sometimes by means that were insignificant 
and inadequate in order to show that it was not by 
human might or power ; sometimes by the faith of one 
humble believer. 

This writer has been familiar with the story of 
David and Goliath from his infancy. To him. Mam- 
mon, whose head is usury, is the giant PhiHstine who 
now stalks forth to defy ''the armies of the living 
God," and with a grain of David's faith, he flings this 
stone. 



VY/ 



q V\c 



INDEX 

Page 

Abstinence 255 

Agar — Prayer of 219 

American Revision 87 

American Statesman 172 

Aristotle .132, 259 

Average Interest ... 135 

Bank of England 184, 195 

Bank of Venice , 193 

Bank, First in U. S , 198 

Banks and Brokers 161 

Bacon 108, 180, 266 

Banking, Claim for 56 

Barriers Broken Down 45 

Borrower 62 

Borrowing 241 

Benton, Thomas H 199 

Bankruptcy 176 

Basil 169 

Beza 71 

Bilble and Nature 93 

Bible Encyclopedia 8, 21 

Block Stone 10 

Brotherhood — Christian 47 

Bush, Prof. Geo 14 

Bureau of Engraving 123 

Capital Combines 223 

Catechism 233 

Cato 26 1 

Car Fares 164 

Calvin, Institutes of 78 

Calvin, Letter of 73, 162, 248 

Calhoun, J. C 199 

Capital Demands 165 

Cretan Bonds 204 

Chalmers . . . ; 62 

(293) 



294 INDBX— Continued. 

Page 

Charlemagne 70 

Changed Conditions 81 

Chattel Slave 147 

Character in Fathers 206 

Cheever, Rev. Geo 286 

Creeds 272 

Croesus 218 

Covetousness 61, 214, 273 

Cooper Anecdote 274 

City Deibts 140, 168 

Criminal in Court 127 

Coachman Ill 

Chrysostom 69 

Christ-like Soul 42 

Council of Ten 195 

Cyrus 36 

David 26 

Debts, Dicharged 63 

Debts, Stimulated 138 

Deibts, Church 141 

Debts, National 142, 189 

Decay, Limits 136 

Deposit or Loan 105 

Diligence 60 

Disciples, Practice of 58 

Deacon Giles' Distillery 286 

Dives 218 

Doge, The 194 

Dueling 282 

Edward III 263 

Edward VI 264 

England, History 262 

English People k . . 192 

Elizabeth 264 

Esau's Abstinence 256 

Equality Impossible 222 

Ethics in Bible _ 94 

Equity Between Thieves 160 



INDEX— Continued 295 

Page 

Exchanges 56 

Express Company 118 

Extravagance 155 

Ezekiel's Protests 31 

Ezra 36 

Family Economy 154 

Farm Preserved 135, 247 

Farm Consumed 246 

Faithful Steward 117 

Fathers, Apostolic 69, 80 

Fathers, Later 70, 80 

Financial Slavery 150 

Force in Abstract 99 

Fishers' Catechism 235 

Freight Rates 109 

"Golden Book" 194 

Gambling 283 

Giving 51 

Gravity Levels 222 

Great Enterprises 239 

Greek Artist 216 

Greece) History 258 

Guile, Taken by 104 

Hebrews in Egypt 212 

Henry II 262 

Henry III 263 

Henry VII 263 

H^enry VIII 264 

Hindoo Widow 24 

Honesty Hindered 210 

Hodge, Dr. Charles 237 

Home Wanted 251 

Horace , 261 

Human Nature 81 

Hume 192 

Incorporated Properties 171 

Industry Discouraged 207 



296 INDEX— Continued 

Page 

Indians, Omahas »...,, 244 

Injustice, Submitted 120 

Interest Defined 9 

Insurance Company 119, 254 

Interest, Compound 180 

Installment Plan 140 

Intemperance 283 

Jackson, Andrew 200 

Jefferson, Thos. 200 

Jennet, M 182 

Jeremy Bentham 113 

Jeremiah Protests , 30 

Jubilee, Year of 45 

Justinian Code 261 

King Alfred 262 

Khedivd 203 

Land Question 249 

Lombards i. 195 

London Tenants 169 

Luther 71 

Macauley .196 

Machinery, Improved 226 

Mammon 203, 221 

Melancthon 71 

Messiah's Character 42 

Moral Law 82 

Milton 145, 203 

Minuits, Pettr 181 

Middle Classes 220 

Mons Sacer 260 

Money Barren 83, 122 

Moses 57 

Mosaic Laws . . . -. 11, 14 

McCullough, Sec 201 

Nature and Bible 93 

Nehemiah 36, 40, 57, 63 

Nile Worship 214 

Obsolete Words 7 



INDEX— Continued 297 

Page 

One Cent Loaned 182 

Ottoman Empire 212 

Over-production 156 

Panics 187 

Paul to Timothy 59 

Paulist Fathers 65 

Pounds, Parable of 54 

Peel, Sir Robert 196 

Physicians' Charges 115 

Poor Richard 240 

Poor, Oppressed 154 

Poor, to the Spirit 48 

Popes 70 

Polygamy , . . 85 

Production, Limited 158 

Promoter 161 

Prime, Dr 285 

Rates, Differ Why 108 

Rentals of Land : : 243 

Revolution 238 

Ridpath 71 

Rich Fool 49, 137 

Rights, Personal 98 

Rights, Equal 102 

Risk 253 

Robe Ill 

Rome, History 250 

Ruskin 72, 156, 255 

Sands, Bishop 70 

Sabbath of Rest 85, 171 

Shoff, Herzog 8, 69 

Scripture Passages: 

Genesis 21 : 26 ". 7 

Exodus 32:1 7 

Exodus 22: 25 13, 20 

Leviticus 19:33, 34 21 

Leviticus 22: 22 19 

Leviticus 23: 23 22 



298 INDEX— Continued 

Page 

Scripture Passages: 

Leviticus 34: 10 22 

Deut. 5:14 24 

Deut 25:19 17 

Deut. 15: 7-9 *. 44 

Numbers 15: 15 16, 19 

Joshua 9: 23 22 

Psalm 15 26 

Psalm 92 7 

Psalm 112: 1-3 15 

Proverbs 22: 4 15 

Proverbs 28: 20 15, 27 

Jeremiah 31 : 29 32 

Isaiah 10:15 101 

Ezekiel 24: 15-18 31 

Ezekiel 22: 7-12 31 

Ezekiel 18:117 33 

Matthew 5 : 17 43 

Matthew 6: 12 45 

Matthew 13:22 48 

Matthew 19:24 49 

Matthew 25: 14 52 

Luke 6:35 44 

Luke 51: 52, 53 47 

Luke 19: 12 52 

John 15 : 12 46 

John 13:34 46 

Romans 1 : 13 7 

Romans 13:8 62 

Acts 3: 17 7 

Acts 2: 44, 45 58 

1 Corinthians 1:27, 28 58 

1 Corinthians 13 8 

Ephesians 4 : 28 60 

1 Thess. 4: 15 7 

1 Timothy 5:8 59 

James 5 : 1-6 61 

Slaves, Happy > 148 

Slaves, Chattel 286 



SB 



INDEX— Concluded 299 

Page. 

Self Reliance 211 

Strangers, Three Classes 18 

Shoe Plant 128 

Shylock % 121, 195 

Slot Machines. 104 

Solomon and Usury 27, 144 

Solon 218, 259 

Socialism 289 

Spirituality Destroyed 216 

Stevens, Thadeus 201 

Strikes 227 

Sultan 203 

Sun Worship 214 

Superstitions 282 

Taxes Off the Poor 168 

Tenantry 250 

"The Hague" 230 

Talents, Parable of 52 

Thrift 51, 209 

Time 107^ 254 

Temptation to Upright 149 

Timon of Athens 146 

Tools, Not Productive 135 

Trade, Profits in 124 

Trusts 186, 224 

Usury, Definition 8 

Usury and the Stranger 18 

Valet 145 

Venice 193 

Vienna, Council of , 70 

War, Evils of 229 

Webster, Definition 9 

Wealth Decays 132 

Wealth, Barren 131 

William and Mary 195, 264, 279 

Wilson's Catechism 233 

Wrong Laws 279 

Young Reformers 187 

Zacheus 49 

Zerubbabel ) 36 



The Anti-Usury League. 

The object, the purpose and wor 
of the Anti-Usury League is to expoE 
the evils, the oppressions, the frai 
and the sin of usury or interest, I 
publications, "by lectures, by con- 
ventions and by every other practj 
cal method. 

All persons in sympathy with th: 
object, and who can in any way co 
operate by distributing its liter 
ture or by other publications or 
lecturing or by arranging for lee 
tures or conventions, are request 
to enter into correspondence. 

Also all persons who have beco 
interested by reading the precedi 
pages and who seek further infor- 
mation and who desire to keep in 
touch with the work of this Leagu 
should send their names and address 
for enrollment . 

THE ANT I -USURY LEAGUE , 
Millersburg, Ohi 






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DOBBS BROS. ■ - <■ ■" 

LIBRARY BINOINO 

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ST. AUGUSTINE 4 o 







